Former Russian PM Kasyanov blames Putin for jailing Khodorkovsky for political reasons

Throwing his backing behind Khodorkovsky’s suit in the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Kasyanov said he had submitted an affidavit filed to the court in Strasbourg, in which he laid out Putin’s explanation in July 2003 for the rising state pressure on Khodorkovsky and his Yukos oil company.

“He told me Khodorkovsky…was financing the Communist party without his agreement,” Kasyanov told the FT.

Kasyanov said he had pressed Mr Putin for an explanation many times about the July 2003 arrest of Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky’s closest associate, and about mounting state pressure on Khodorkovsky as prosecutors began to investigate tax fraud claims.

Putin had refused to answer, he said, but at one point in July 2003 in a private meeting inside Putin’s office in the Kremlin Palace, the president told him that Khodorkovsky had crossed a line by financing the communists without his permission even as he was financing the liberal Yabloko and Union of Right Forces parties in line with Kremlin orders. “He did not say any more.”

Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003, and after that the state took over his oil company Yukos over back tax claims.

The president tightened his grip over parliament in the December 2003 elections which saw liberal opposition parties excluded and the Communist party largely muzzled.

Kasyanov’s statement could add weight to Mr Khodorkovsky’s appeal against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that his arrest in 2003 was politically motivated.