I knew President Yeltsin well. He would never have tolerated government officials demonstratively showing off the millions they acquired through corruption, the way it's done today.

Third party support
Khodorkovsky has received a high level of independent third party support from groups and individuals who believe the process charges and two trials against him are politically motivated. "
On 19 August 2005 Khodorkovsky announced that he was on a hunger strike in protest his friend and associate Platon Lebedev's placement in the punishment cell of the jail. At this point Khodorkovsky et al.

He was arrested on 25 October 2003 to appear before investigators as a witness but within hours of being taken into custody he was charged with fraud. He was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison in May 2005. There is on-going debate about whether the trials and sentencing were politically motivated.