Following Khodorkovsky’s letter to Boris Titov, which was published in Gazeta.ru, the Business Ombudsman responded:

Dear Mikhail Borisovich,

I am grateful for the application to my address. Despite the scepticism that was expressed by you in advance, I am building my work as the RF Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneur’s Rights on the base of a specifically independent inquiry, conducted by public institutions created by the entrepreneurial community.

With this objective, I propose to you officially, according to the existing rules of procedure, to apply to the Centre of Public Procedures “Business against corruption”, which for the course of a year and a half already is an instrument of work with the applications of entrepreneurs in respect to the violation of their rights on the part of the state.

The Centre is a platform created jointly with the Ministry of Economic Development with the support of the Government of the RF. Into the composition of the Board of Supervisors of the Centre enter representatives of more than 50 various ministries and departments, including the law-enforcement ones.

At the present time, more than 160 applications by entrepreneurs have been processed by the Centre, many have been rendered legal support and real assistance.

The work procedure at the Centre assumes your official application, a juridical audit and a conclusion from the Public Council.

In order to obtain additional information and follow-through of the procedure, I ask your representatives to maintain contact with the executive management of the Centre.

I would like to specially underscore that all procedures of the Centre carry an open public character. In so doing, preferences for any specific mass information media whatsoever are not accorded.

I hope this will help to objectively assess the situation.

Respectfully,

Boris Titov