Former deputy chief of presidential administration, now vice premier Igor Sechin was the initiator of both trials of the YUKOS board. This is the statement made to The Times by ex-CEO of that Russian oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The war between Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has actually already begun. Supporters and associates of the Kremlin’s former ringleader are now holding leading posts in the new government of Russia.

Moscow was perplexed about the decision made by the Ukrainian authorities to ban Moscow mayor Luzhkov from entering Ukraine. Moscow found nothing wrong with Luzkov’s calls to start redrawing the Ukrainian map and handing the port city of Sevastopol, Crimea, to Russia.