“Mikhail Khodorkovsky has now spent ten years of his life in jail.  The spurious charges levelled against him in 2003 were an early warning sign of the direction of travel for Putin’s regime.  His release will not only be of benefit to the Khodorkovsky family but to Russia too as her economy cannot attract the business investment it needs if the international business community fears that her approach to law and human rights is tainted by corruption and political motivations.

It is a pity that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has not benefited from the Amnesty that has just been announced.  But it is imperative that he is freed when his sentence comes to an end in August 2014 next year.

I send him and his family my heartfelt hope that 2014 will be the year in which this gross injustice done to him will come to an end.”

Robert Buckland, MP, Chairman of Conservative Human Rights Commission