Today a press conference was held in Washington DC to announce the presentation of a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed by eight prestigious human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and others, to express concern over the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Below is the full text of the letter – we hope to post video of the event soon.

April 21, 2009

His Excellency Dmitry Medvedev
Russian Federation
Ilinka Str, No 23
103132, Moscow
Russia

Dear Mr. President:

We, the undersigned, wish to express our deep concern about the deterioration of respect for rule of law and human rights in Russia.