Communication between lawyer and client is virtually impossible during the course of a trial. Accusatory bias is the bane of the trial advocate’s existence. Potentially, the lawyer confronts it each time he or she steps into a courtroom. The Soviet media and Soviet government officials have publicly acknowledged that obvinitel’nyi uklon is inconsistent with a fair and objective criminal justice system. The trial thus far had been a cacophony of rapid-fire questions and cross-questions that at times caused total disorder. Soviet trials are freewheeling affairs, with few rigid procedural constraints. Lawyers and prosecutors can question at will as long as the judge gives permission. The trial had become a verbal free-for-all. Borzov, Bulantsov, and Mordvinov all traded charges, each seeking to shade his guilt in the complicity of others.