Kommersant explains how there is not much “new” about the rehashed charges filed against Mikhail Khodorkovsky by the Russian prosecutors. The paper is also running an interview with a former Khodorkovsky cell mate, who confesses that he was blackmailed into filing a false statement which resulted in the denial of early conditional release.

Style Improved in Khodorkovsky Case A new version of an old charge has been brought against YUKOS former chiefs Yesterday Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were charged with a theft of some 350 mln tons of oil and laundering 487 bln roubles and $7.5. You can hardly render this accusation new: Compared with the previous version, only stylistic inaccuracy has been improved, and some of the paragraphs have been swapped. The lawyers of those accused do not rule it out that the investigators decided to protract the process to demonstrate their activity while waiting for a political decision regarding Mr Khodorkovsky’s fate. Yesterday Russian Prosecutor General’s Office investigators Mr Ibiev and Ms Shapovalova handed over a 145-page order to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, which reads that they are accused of a theft and laundering money. It’s a new version of the charge that was brought against them in February, 2007. At that time the paper was signed by a reputed investigator Salavat Karimov. Now Valery Alyshev, investigator with the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, put his signature on the document.