The first overseas presentation of “Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and all the rest”, a book by Konstantin Rivkin, took place in London on Monday. The event was jointly hosted by the international movement Speak Up and the Solicitors International Human Rights Group.

The book summarises 8 years of Rivkin’s experience as a lawyer for Platon Lebedev, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s former business partner.

Copies of the book, which were brought over from Moscow by Rivkin, were distributed amongst the attendees, before the author spoke and then took questions from the audience.

During the presentation, Rivkin said: “I have worked on the Yukos case for eight and a half years and participated in both trials. At the second trial I was Lebedev’s defence team coordinator. Accumulated material and the desire to speak out publicly spawned the book. First of all, I wanted to write about the defence team in this unique in many ways case. Naturally, it was impossible for me to keep silent about what I think about the enemy – confronting investigators, prosecutors and judges, about the methods they use, the persecution of lawyers, and some of the victims of the Yukos affair. Separate paragraphs in the book are devoted to those victims – Vasily Alexanyan, Vladimir Pereverzin, Antonio Valdes-Garcia, Pavel Ivlev.

It is for the readers to judge the book. Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev wrote in their review that this book is for a specialised audience, meaning jurists. Perhaps that is true. The book had a print-run of 2000 copies; most have already been sold. But most importantly, if it gets to be read by ordinary citizens, those who have closely followed the trials, as well as by law professionals, then I can consider my mission accomplished.”