He was not one of the lawyers considered "reliable" by the regime and pleaded in
criminal proceedings for 30 years. In 1986, Schmidt was struck off the
bar association. After pleading his case, he was reinstated a year later. He began representing prisoners charged with political crimes in the late 1980s. His clients included jailed leaders of political independence movements in the ethnic enclaves of
Nagorno-Karabakh and
South Ossetia, a journalist charged with defaming President
Islam Karimov of
Uzbekistan. His most resounding victory was the acquittal of
Aleksandr Nikitin, a former Soviet submarine captain who had been charged with espionage and high treason after he wrote a series of reports detailing radioactive pollution by Russia’s navy. He was a member of the
Mikhail Khodorkovsky defense team from 2004, and headed the legal team for several years. ==References==