In an interview with “Neprikosnovenny Zapas” Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, has stated that he was not at all satisfied with Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s recent sentencing reduction:

“Despite the fact that the Moscow City Court reduced the sentence, all the falsity, injustice and absurdity of the second Yukos case remain intact. We, the defence team, over the last year, have been demanding, in addition to the abolition of the sentence and dismissal of the case, the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev due to the mitigation of the criminal law sanctions…I will be happy only when Russia’s political hostages will be released and rehabilitated. The defence team does everything in its power to achieve that. The defence of Khodorkovsky – undoubtedly, a prisoner of conscience – is not limited to the political component, for all its importance. The charges are false throughout, in both the legal and economic sense, and even from the standpoint of logic and common sense.”

Klyuvgant also mentioned the European Parliament’s resolution on “the political use of justice in Russia” while speaking about the political and corrupt motives of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s prosecution, adding, that “The European Court of Human Rights, unfortunately, so far, has not found the strength to consider and resolve the merits of the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev”.

Answering a question about the liberalisation of Russia’s Criminal Code and the apparent change in tone of Putin’s remarks when he speaks about Khodorkovsky’s case, Klyuvgant replied firmly that one cannot call it liberalisation when “the Court decides to continue torturing prisoners for 11 years instead of 13 years.” He continued, “one cannot recognise the beginning of the era of mercy in the ‘changed tone of the President’s remarks.’ He kept an innocent man in prison for 9 years, creating insufferable and humiliating conditions, even by Russian standards, subtly slandering him, and, now after 10 years, he calls him by his name and patronymic, and wishes him health”. He added that a number of laws and bills over the last year have increased repression, not liberalisation.

The full English translation of Klyuvgant’s interview will be available shortly.

Please read the full interview in Russian here