New stage

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev may be interrogated in a fresh criminal case

This week, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office will again take on the disgraced oligarch, ex-head of the oil company YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his former business partner, ex-head of the Menatep MFO, Platon Lebedev, who were sentenced to eight years in prison. As Vremya Novostei learned, the investigative actions in another major “YUKOS case,” about which the VIP prisoners’ lawyers were recently notified, are scheduled for three months—from this December to March next year. The investigation period in this case expires once again in March, but lawyers believe it will be extended again. There is still no specific information about the essence of the charges facing Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. We only know that we are talking about a criminal case long promised by the Prosecutor General’s Office on laundering “millions of dollars.”

Until now, the Prosecutor General's Office has limited itself to only hinting at the existence of another major case related to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. Back in the summer of last year, when the memorable verdict of the Meshchansky Court of the capital did not come into force, the lawyers were ordered to appear in the pre-trial detention center to bring new charges. But for some reason this did not happen. After the verdict with minor changes was approved by the Moscow City Court, the Prosecutor General's Office, represented by its then official representative Natalya Vishnyakova, promised journalists that a new case was coming in the near future. A year has passed, almost the entire management team has changed in the prosecutor's office, and at the beginning of this December, the new Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika recalled this case, who, in a conversation with foreign journalists, confidentially said that he did not exclude the possibility of bringing new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

And at the end of last week it became known about the transfer of convicts from their colonies to the Chita pre-trial detention center. The transfer took place in the strictest secrecy, and even the lawyers were not informed about the fact of the transfer itself, but only that some investigative actions would be carried out with their clients in Chita. However, there is nothing surprising in this - also “mysteriously” a little over a year ago they were sent from “Matrosskaya Silence” to places of serving their sentences (Khodorkovsky - to the village of Krasnokamensk, Chita region , and Lebedev - to the village of Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) . “We learned that Khodorkovsky was sent to Chita on December 20, and we are not given any information about Lebedev at all, but, in all likelihood, he is now on his way to Chita,” lawyer Evgeniy Baru told Vremya Novostei yesterday. . Lawyers are confident that their clients will still face new charges this time. “This is evidenced by the fact that the investigative actions are scheduled for three months - from December to March,” noted Mr. Baru. “But we don’t know exactly what actions are proposed.”

Why investigators chose Chita instead of returning eminent convicts to Moscow is no longer surprising to lawyers. “Apparently, the authorities are trying to do everything to, firstly, create inconvenience for the lawyers, and secondly, the further Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are from the press and from the public, the more convenient it is for them,” suggested Mr. Baru. The investigation should be completed in March, but, according to the lawyer, most likely the deadline will be extended again.

Now the lawyers are hastily gathering for Chita. “We have to find out how many people are listed as defendants in this case, for what events, over what period and in what territories they were committed,” said lawyer Baru. It is expected that investigators will begin conducting their first interrogations tomorrow, December 26.

Ekaterina BUTORINA