The “Pozner” program, First channel, 09.12.2012

Business ombudsman Boris Titov is interviewed by a prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner with regard to Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s second trial, which ran from 2009 to 2010.

V. POZNER: It must have been literally the next day after your appointment that you got yourself caught in a snafu of sorts. You were giving an interview to “Bloomberg”, in which you said (at least that’s how they’re quoting you) that you’re going to propose to “Putin to give an amnesty to 13 thousand people convicted for economic crimes, including Khodorkovsky”*. And you added that “for the investment climate, this would be good news”. Then you reproached “Bloomberg” for distorting your words. I’ve got two questions. First, in what was the distortion? And second, do you consider that such an amnesty, including for Khodorkovsky, is necessary?

B. TITOV: To answer the first question, I can say that this is not even a distortion. It’s just that I was talking about how we’re going to plug in our instruments in order to examine the Khodorkovsky case as well. And, at the end of the day, if we adopt a decision that his rights have been violated, and he is found [in prison—Trans.] illegally, then we’re going to be taking all measures in order to release him.

V. POZNER: And the 13 thousand?

B. TITOV: 13 thousand people today are in jails for economic crimes already after a verdict. We’re working with those who apply to us. It’s just that we’ve got our own procedure. You understand that we’ve got to help those who have the right to this. Because, unfortunately, among the entrepreneurs who today are either in pre-trial detention, or simply have had criminal cases opened on them, not all of them conducted their business honestly, yes? And some of them are using the opportunities of even our institute in order to avoid taking responsibility. Therefore, we have introduced a procedure of expert examination, a legal expert examination, a social expert examination of every one of this kind of application. Khodorkovsky has applied to us. We are conducting a legal expert examination today. I can say that he applied with a request to examine the second case.

V. POZNER: When did he apply?

B. TITOV: He applied in September or October (Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied to Boris Titov through “Gazeta.ru” on 2 August 2012; on 8 August the defense passed the official written text of this application to the business ombudsman’s office staff. – PC). But, of course, this is not a simple question. Today, several law firms are working, and they’re looking at his case from the legal side. It needs to be said that the second case flows out of other episodes of the YUKOS case. And, of course, we looked at the second case, but you’ve got to look at the first one, because they’re interconnected with one another. And, in principle, you’ve probably got to look at other episodes that were as well. Therefore, we’re going to be issuing both our legal and our social decision based on a broader approach to this problem.

V.POZNER: Two questions. First, who’s paying for this work?

B. TITOV: The work of the lawyers is being paid for by the lawyers themselves, because… You know, there is such a world system that’s called pro bono, when lawyers work on social principles [a volunteer basis—Trans.] on individual cases. For them, this is not only social responsibility as a kind of social duty, but this is also an opportunity to get very interesting cases, to increase their experience. And they work for us for free.

V. POZNER: And the second. What do you think, the thing you’re engaging in with regard to Khodorkovsky, have you got an idea about the timetable for the completion of this work?

B. TITOV: You know, we’re in contact with his lawyers, because we’re looking, we’re studying. We’re not rushing our experts for now. I think that at the beginning of the year we’ll come out with some kind of decision. But now we’re going to have to conduct a social expert examination too; that is, we must gather ourselves into a social council, something that we’ve got, the “Business against corruption” Social Procedures Center.

V. POZNER: Is this a year, is this more than a year?

B. TITOV: No, I think that this isn’t a year. Less. We’ve got many of this kind of applications, and for us, of course, Khodorkovsky is a very important moment in the development of the corporate system of Russia. But, nevertheless, we’ve got a large quantity of applications, which we also engage in.

*Actual citation from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-22/putin-s-business-rights-chief-seeks-amnesty-for-khodorkovsky22-1-.html: “Putin the release of 13,000 people jailed for economic crimes, including Khodorkovsky”.