A Moscow court last week found former Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter boss Anatoly Bykov guilty of conspiracy to murder and other charges -and freed him with a six-and-a-half year sentence suspended for five years. Bykov's sensational departure from court on June 19 was a reminder of just how fickle the legal and political environment of Russian metals remains. Judge Vladimir Nikitin at the Meshchanskii court in Moscow found Bykov guilty on charges of organising the attempted murder of businessman Vilor Struganov, illegal possession of firearms and other lesser charges. He sentenced Bykov to six-and-a-half years imprisonment, but suspended the sentence on the grounds that Bykov had already been behind bars for twenty months, that he is a deputy in the Krasnoyarsk regional parliament, has a good employment record and had recently had an operation.
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