Prime Minister of the RF Vladimir Putin in an interview with Bloomberg said: “I never had it as a goal to destroy billionaires. My goal has been for all to live according to the rules, which are called laws. These rules are being made legally, by means of parliament, in a normal country. And all citizens of the country have to follow those rules, which are called laws.”

By sheer coincidence, on that same day, the defense of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev applied to the leadership of the Investigative Committee of the RF with a joint petition. The lawyers declared about the violation of the constitutional rights of their clients in the “main” YUKOS case and demanded dismissal of a new criminal case in connection with the absence of elements of a crime. The lawyers declared likewise about the most flagrant violations of the fundamental constitutional rights and lawful interests, allowed in relation to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.