Mikhail Khodorkovsky Answers Reader's Questions for Gazeta.ru
In an online interview with Gazeta.ru Mikhail Khodorkovsky answers reader's questions on the day of his birthday.
Khodorkovsky confirmed that, as any company's manager would do, he tried to optimize taxes at YUKOS. He said that he never stole money, explaining that "the main profit for a top manager of a large private company is in the growth of the stake. A theft would bring its value down, generate small profits, and create big problems."
Khodorkvsky added that: "After I was arrested I lost the right to control the shares and they passed to my partners automatically. If we are pronounced guilty [in the second case], all taxes and property should be returned to YUKOS. I doubt this will be done... Still, I am convinced that YUKOS managers are respectable [people] and will make sure the profits they received from the sale of the company's foreign assets, will be distributed among the shareholders once the legal procedures have been completed."
He also stated that his fate "will not be decided in the court. If the court were independent, the trial would never have started."