Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the former German Federal Minister of Justice, has commented on the release of Platon Lebedev. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who was a special rapporteur on the Yukos case for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that:

“In any way, it is a good decision. One can only rejoice that Mr Lebedev, following Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was released. I would not regard this act as some kind of liberalisation, but again, I am glad that Platon Lebedev was released after spending ten years in prison and facing numerous other problems.

In Lebedev’s case, the decision was made by the court. In Khodorkovsky ’s case, it was a political decision. It was the decision of Mr. Putin. I think it was driven by a desire to show the ability of the authorities to correct their course. After all, the Yukos case was under the radar of the public.”

Read the full interview in Russian here.