Someone has borrowed Khodorkovsky’s idea.

After the Monday congress of United Russia everything was up for discussion. One subject was the possible transformation of Russia into a parliamentary republic. Experts and journalists have not forgotten that Mikhail Khodorkovsky was among the first to speak in support of such a political system. It’s something for which he has not yet been forgiven …

Dmitry Oreshkin, Newtimes.ru, 2 October 2007
[…] The simplest way, and Putin was fairly transparent in his allusion, is for him to become prime minister. At the elections United Russia will achieve a constitutional majority, following which it does not matter whether the president resigns or not. Certain constitutional reforms then take place, all the powers with which the president is endowed are reassigned to the prime minister, Putin becomes head of the government and begins to rule. It’s the simplest arrangement. […]

Sergei Dorenko, ‘In My Opinion’ (Echo Moskvy radio station), 1 October 2007
The plan to take over the country by becoming the all-powerful leader of the government is attributed to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. […] The person who heads the government, would rule Russia: we were told this was Khodorkovsky’s idea, though we don’t know for sure, and that supposedly was why he was locked up. […] Putin will have to change the constitution and transfer major powers to the prime minister, i.e. to himself as leader of the winning party and, therefore, head of the government. In other words, he must make the transition to a parliamentary republic, when Khodorkovsky was accused of wanting to do the same …. So Putin has to make the transition while the president becomes someone who hands out prizes at dog shows like the presidents of Germany, Italy or Israel … well, something like that, they don’t have much power, do they? […]

Andrei Kolesnikov, Kommersant Daily, 2 October 2007 (report from the United Russia congress)
[…] At that moment it almost seemed that the Russian prime minister Victor Zubkov was only months away from the presidency while from May 2008 onward Vladimir Putin would head the government of all Russians and be the leader of a parliamentary republic led by a premier from the winning party.

We must not be hasty, however. The idea cannot be too appealing to Mr Putin, not least because it originated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. There are still surprises on the way, of that you may rest assured. […]

Mikhail Delyagin, Regnum news agency, 1 October 2007
[…] In essence, this is the Khodorkovsky plan for which the Kremlin’s propagandists hate him. However, I don’t think it will come off. In a parliamentary republic the president would be like the Queen of England, and Putin’s own position would become vulnerable. As prime minister he’d be dependent on United Russia and it would be a pitiful role. One could only sympathise with someone in that position. […]