As determined in the monthly poll on ‘The attitude of Russians to the Yukos case’, conducted by the Yuri Levada Analytical Centre in August 2006, 45% of respondents are convinced that the company was made bankrupt so that ‘Yukos’s remaining assets could be sold off at knock-down prices to companies linked to Kremlin officials’.

The antipathy of respondents stems from the authorities’ behaviour towards individuals and organizations which support Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Forty-two per cent of Russians believe that the authorities have made a mistake in prosecuting them.

The position of Russians on the reasons for Khodorkovsky’s prosecution remains unchanged. The majority of respondents (about 50%) believe that Khodorkovsky is in prison because ‘he failed to reach an agreement with Kremlin officials’, while 43% of respondents believe that the powers-that-be put pressure on the judges in the case to bring in a guilty verdict.

About 30% of respondents believe that Khodorkovsky remains a threat to the authorities since after his release he will play a considerable role in Russian politics; and over 20% suggest that the authorities may physically eliminate him. Even this possibility, however, cannot morally defeat Khodorkovsky, in the view of 45% of respondents.

The poll, conducted by the Yuri Levada Analytical Centre between August 18 and 21, 2006, involved 1602 people aged 18 or over in 46 regions and 128 settlements. It was carried out via a weighted sampling reflecting the main social-professional and social-demographic characteristics of the country’s adult population.