Lukyanova said, “We are starting work on a program for law-enforcement and judicial reform, and I think that Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky will join us. A lot has been done, and it should now all be put together.”

Tuesday marked the founding session of the movement which unites various social-democratic and center-left minded parties and organizations. Khodorkovsky, who wishes to dissociate himself from politics, said he would be an advisor rather than a member of the Left Alliance according to Lukyanova, but she said that “The movement’s statement already laid down a number of his [Khodorkovsky] left-wing views.”

Solidarity leader Boris Nemtsov has stated that Khodorkovsky’s involvement with the Left Alliance would assuage suspicions that the alliance had been initiated by the Kremlin. Nemtsov added that Khodorkovsky’s support of the movement could create obstacles for the Fair Russia faction of the new movement because “After all, most Fair Russia members are puppets taking their orders [from the Kremlin] and carrying them out,” according to Nemtsov.