A poll carried out in May by the Levada-Centre has shown that Russians are under no illusions about the real motives behind prisoner Kuchma’s attack on Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Around 20% of respondents believe Kuchma intended to kill Khodorkovsky, while 12.1% think he wanted to maim him or permanently disfigure the ex-Yukos CEO’s face. 22.2% are convinced that the attack was orchestrated by ‘people at the very top who hate and fear Khodorkovsky’, which is double the number of those who believe Kuchma was motivated solely by personal hatred. According to 8.4% of respondents, the colony’s administration, ‘angry at Khodorkovsky’s resistance to rife lawlessness’, played a role in the organization of the attack.
41% of Russians agree that the periodic tightening of the regime under which Khodorkovsky is serving is ‘an attempt to break Khodorkovsky’s spirit and self-worth and to strip him of any chance of parole’. But many people support the idea that Mikhail Khodorkovsky is still doing well. 41.4% believe that they haven’t managed to break him.

Respondents differed in their opinion about the date of Khodorkovsky’s release: 14.6% think he will be freed in 1-2 years; 12.9%, in 3-4 years; 11.9%, in 5-6 years; and 11.8%, even later. 3.7% think the Yukos boss will never be released at all.
Since the authorities’s activities have not been limited to the prosecution of Khodorkovsky, the sociologists asked Russians to express their views on the fate of organizations tied to him. About 50% of respondents believe that prosecutions of individuals and organizations linked to his name are imminent. But only 21% believe that such prosecutions will have anything to do with cracking down on law-breaking. The rest adhere to the following views on the real motives behind it:
• 18.7% - it’s aimed at the intimidation of those who work for and support Khodorkovsky;
• 16% - it’s aimed at stripping Khodorkovsky of any last opportunity he may have to influence politics;
• 11.6% - it’s aimed at the cowing and humiliation of Khodorkovsky
43.5% expressed their disapproval of the Prosecutor's office’s freezing of the property assets of the boarding-school at Koralovo actions, though one-fifth of the population approved it.
Asked who was damaging Russia most, 79.2% put the blame on officials abusing their authority for personal gain, while only 11.7% identified domestic entrepreneurs as responsible for the country’s woes, using the legislature’s weaknesses to bolster their own businesses.

The poll was conducted by the Yuri Levada Analytical Centre between May 19 and 22, 2006. Overall 1600 people aged 18 and upwards were interviewed. The survey was carried out on the basis of a Russia-wide representative sample, reflecting the chief socio-professional and socio-demographic features of the country’s adult population.