Platon Lebedev heard the news that the Arkhangelsk regional court had refused to agree to his early release and reduce his sentence from his lawyer.  Smiling ironically, he observed the inconsistencies in the administration of Russian justice but appealed to his supporters: “I’d like to ask those who got upset, don’t despair, everything will be good in the end.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, was disappointed but not surprised by the verdict on Platon Lebedev.  On the 20^th December, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court is due to hear an appeal from both men relating to the guilty verdict in their 2010 second trial which could also be influenced by the early release reforms to the Russian Criminal Code of 2011.

Mr Klyuvgant remarked: “I don’t know now what we will hear from the Presidium of the Moscow City Court, which has also been procrastinating for almost half a year already allegedly waiting for some very important Arkhangelsk decision to come into force. OK, so now there is no decision again, and the hearing has been scheduled for the 20^th … And we can again forecast with regret that we will have to hear explanations why the Moscow City Court allegedly cannot decide anything either. I will again be glad to be mistaken, but I’m afraid I won’t have an opportunity to rejoice at my mistake again.

“All in all, I feel that all of this is some sort of a large scam. At the same time, only three days ago we heard from the main person in our country, President Putin, great bright words how everything should be done justly, and courts should be doing things right, and there should be no lynching under the guise of criminal court proceedings. Words and deeds have been going their separate ways for almost ten years already. Today they once again went in the completely opposite directions.”