(2 of 2)
Even if the fight with Khodorkovsky is political, it's a risky one for Putin. The arrest could bolster Khodorkovsky's status, elevating him to the role of de facto opposition leader--or political martyr. "It's very hard to tell how this one can end," says a Yukos board member. "If they let him out of jail, he won't agree to be muzzled, and he doesn't want to leave the country."
Khodorkovsky knows the stakes are high. The big question, he told an American audience last month, is, "Are we going to become a democratic Russia for the first time in our 1,000-year history, or are we going to continue along our 1,000-year-old path of authoritarianism?" Watch this case. --Reported by Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow and Eric Roston/Washington