"Everyone must ask why the dishonoured and ransacked ex-oligarch who has already spent seven years in a Siberian prison without justification has not been released, and why he is not allowed to go into exile. Such an approach would have advantages: it would give foreign investors a little security. ... The hotch-potch of obscure political scandals and mysterious assassinations doesn't encourage investors to do business there. Khodorkovsky was the one who created a vision of a Russia that modernises and becomes democratic by freeing itself of its politico-economic mafias. Until only recently Mikhail Khodorkovsky's ideas seemed premature and reckless, if not entirely utopian, in the eyes of Moscow. Now the wind is blowing from a different direction and people are discovering that the real risk for the country is Putin and his sad performance."

"This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia's reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate,"

"For several years now these two men have been trapped in a judicial vortex that answers to political not legal considerations. (...) Today's verdict makes it clear that Russia's lower courts are unable, or unwilling, to deliver justice in their cases."