Lebedev: “I Don’t Expect Putin’s Mercy”
Platon Lebedev replied to questions from Novaya Gazeta readers. Lebedev said that Russia will have to pay out large amounts of money under international litigations, the GML suit in The Hague and the YUKOS corporate claim in European Court of Human Rights.
Answering the question why he carries on defending himself if the outcome of the trial is pretty clear, he said: "I am fighting for my good name and that of my big family, for those from YUKOS that are dear, although sometimes unfamiliar, to me, who fell victims to the system."
He added: "I don't' expect [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin's mercy, but for him to be pragmatic. He has something to loose too."
Answering a question whether the judge is a puppet of the law-enforcement authorities he cited his complaint to the ECHR: "The courts are almost 100% dependent on the prosecutors and the law-enforcement agencies...In such circumstances it would be an illusion to demand that the Russian judges respect the Article 6 of the Convention (the right for a fair trial), in the trial against [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky and Lebedev."
Lebedev said: "I aim for the Court to release me. The President, as far as I understand, is interested for the COURT [as an authority], not 'a court', to pronounce justice."