In an interview with Vedomosti, Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov has attempted to justify why he is in no hurry to re-examine Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s case.

Khodorkovsky wrote to the ombudsman with a request to examine the verdict in his second case on August 2, 2012. Several months later, Titov was interviewed by prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner and when asked about Khodorkovsky’s second trial, he stated: “We’re not rushing our experts for now. I think that at the beginning of the year (2013) we’ll come out with some kind of decision”.

An excerpt from Vedomosti:

Why has a public inquiry into the second Khodorkovsky case been delayed?

Titov: The Yukos case is being examined by various experts, and not only from Moscow. The results of this legal examination are very different; often opinions on his case are even opposed. Only after we come to a common understanding of the situation, will we be able to take the case to a public board.

It can be endless, studying these matters – until Khodorkovsky walks out of prison because of the end of his imprisonment term…

Titov: We cannot pass judgment until we are done studying it. Some experts support the position of the defence, while others believe the sentence is correct, and there is even an opinion that he wasn’t given long enough. In general, legally speaking, if you remove the politics, the situation is very ambiguous. By the way, Khodorkovsky didn’t express any complaints in this regard.

Maybe he just doesn’t believe in you?

Titov: Well, that’s a question for him. We are taking as much time as necessary. But, whatever opinion may exist in regard to the second sentence, there is a general understanding that there were violations, and no one is arguing with that. However, there is also a fact that in those times the rules of the game were such – and violations were committed not only by the oligarchs, but almost all were forced to work like this, so our decision should also take that into account.

The full interview in Russian can be read HERE.