Former deputy chief of presidential administration, now vice premier Igor Sechin was the initiator of both trials of the YUKOS board. This is the statement made to The Times by ex-CEO of that Russian oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"Sechin launched the first trial out of greed, and the second one out of cowardice," this is how Mikhail Khodorkovsky explained the motives of the persecution.

According to the YUKOS' ex-CEO, it is hard to say how exactly Igor Sechin convinced Vladimir Putin to launch the prosecution of the most successful Russian company. According to Mr. Khodorkovsky's version, Putin really thought that the businessman was plotting a political upheaval.

But "thus is ridiculous, since back then I was openly funding two oppositional political parties that at best would have gained 15 percent at the parliamentary elections".

Khodorkovsky believes that the government had no intelligible reason but avarice. The entrepreneur, who is now held in confinement, said that the Kremlin needed a pretext to take over YUKOS as the most successful Russian oil company.

In his interview to The Times Mikhail Khodorkovsky expressed hopes for a reform in the legal system, started by Dmitry Medvedev. According to ex-CEO of YUKOS, some steps taken by the team of the new president are giving reasons for cautious optimism.

Kavkaz Center