Yuri Schmidt and Robert Amsterdam are quoted in this Moscow News article about the upcoming second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky:

“I understand the subtext that journalists are putting into this,” Kho­dorkovsky’s lawyer Yury Shmidt said by telephone, referring to the belief that the trip to Moscow may be a positive political signal. “But I don’t see any special influence from President Dmitry Medvedev and his team in this decision. It is a normal, lawful decision. It is evidence that somewhere at the top they have understood that there must be some limits in this persecution.”

He added that while he did not see any “clever game” in the decision to try Khodorkovsky in Moscow, it was clear that “Medvedev does not need this case.”