I think I have made my own perspectives on the verdict and sentence handed down to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev abundantly clear in a variety of interviews.  However today’s news of the almost maximum sentence of 14 years (six more to serve) ordered up by Judge Viktor Danilkin (precisely what the prosecutors and Vladimir Putin asked for) has prompted a number of reactions across the world.

From the U.S. State Department: “We remain concerned by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, referring to Khodorkovsky’s co-defendant Platon Lebedev.