Appellate Law

CA1: in new Russia, the government steals from you for apolitical reasons

By S. COTUS

Panchenko v. Mukasey, No. 07-2032 (unpublished).  While this is a denial of an asylum petition, the facts are interesting.  When the Russians were communist, the petitioner graduated from college and couldn?t find a job.  In America, people like that either go to law school or work at Starbucks.  She worked for the KGB ?work[ing] at foreign embassies in the Soviet Union, monitoring the activities of foreign diplomats.?  But she did something wrong (i.e. losing documents) which ?prevented her from traveling abroad or purchasing an apartment in Moscow.?  Then she went back to school (like an American), but the KGB prevented her from publishing her PhD dissertation.  The IJ and the BIA say that this didn?t really constitute persecution because she was still able to go to school, and she didn?t state any details about how she was unable to renew her passport.  Moreover, the fact that her last apartment was stolen by the Putin government probably is just indicative of general corruption and nastiness, and probably won?t politically motivated.  And besides, we all know that communism has fallen and been replaced with a corrupt and brutal government that has elections and stuff.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on July 11, 2008 (boomark / email).