During his first campaign for president in winter 2000, Vladimir Putin vowed to establish a “dictatorship of law” in Russia. Some observers interpreted that phrase hopefully, as a promise to bring back stability after a decade of social upheaval, state corruption, and private theft. But then, in October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s wealthiest citizen, was arrested for various economic crimes. Many speculated that his fall was meant only to warn his fellow oligarchs that their Yeltsin-era wealth remained safe only so long as they stayed out of politics. Khodorkovsky paid the price for breaching that understanding. Under that interpretation his fate was perhaps unjust, but not broadly replicable. However, the techniques developed in his arrest, incarceration, trial, and sentencing turned out to be the model for an increasing number of subsequent cases. Successive dissidents, regime opponents, activists, and even additional oligarchs have been subject to the same modus operandi. This chapter explores the Khodorkovsky case for what it foretold about the Russian criminal justice system. The case shows that political intervention can and does manipulate the justice system to achieve predetermined outcomes, while nevertheless doing so under a veneer of formal legality.