“A feeble attempt to change the subject”

December 8, 2015

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been summoned for questioning and put on the federal wanted list. 

On December 7, 2015, Boris Moiseyevich Khodorkovsky was handed a summons served against his son, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, naming him as a defendant in criminal case No. 18 / 35-03, in which Alexey Pichugin had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment. The summons was signed by senior Investigative Committee investigator Yury Burtovoy.

Khodorkovsky is invited to appear before the Investigative Committee on December 11.  Above the perforated line is a handwritten note which reads: “Since Khodorkovsky M.B. resides beyond the borders of the Russian Federation, he will be unable to attend.”

Mr Khodorkovsky called the summons a “feeble attempt to change the subject.”

He is referring to the fact of Open Russia, the movement he founded, having recently published the full bill of indictment in the so-called “Spanish case” regarding the mafia’s ties with Russian officials, in which Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin (and investigator Burtovoy’s boss …) is referenced repeatedly.

In the summer, the Investigative Committee announced the reopening of the case into the murder of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov, in which Pichugin was sentenced for life. Boris Khodorkovsky was summonsed for questioning soon after.

On the morning of December 8, Interfax cited an informed source as saying that Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been put on the federal wanted list.

Mr Khodorkovsky’s press-secretary Külli Pispanen said that the former Yukos chief has no intention of participating in the investigation, or of getting in touch with Investigative Committee representatives. “Take part in this farce? They’ve been playing around with Mr Khodorkovsky for the last ten years,” she said.

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