As promised on Monday, below is an exclusive translation of a cover story from the leading French daily newspaper Le Monde. The request for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s early release is a test for President Medvedev Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of the oil giant Yukos has been imprisoned since 2003. His lawyers are relying on a plan for amnesty and want to believe that things have changed since Vladimir Putin’s departure. Marie Jégo, correspondent Le Monde, July 1st, 2008 MOSCOW – Lawyers for former CEO of Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in prison for tax fraud, are taking Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President, at his word by advising him to ask for his early release. Sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005, and in jail since 2003, the former oil chieftain has already served more than half of his sentence and can therefore ask for early release. Until now, anything he did, which was considered as bad behaviour just served as a pretext to keep him in prison: he got up from his chair without permission, he crossed his arms, he kept lemons in his drawer. The relentlessness was obvious.