Vladimir Putin's statement regarding how the Russian people benefited from the sale of YUKOS assets elicited this comment from Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of YUKOS, at the Khamovnichesky law court. Khodorkovsky told presiding judge Viktor Danilkin:
"Your Honour, at the preliminary stage of the trial we apprised you that we would ask you to summon Vladimir Putin to the law court. As you will have heard, today Vladimir Putin publicly declared that he knew that the money was stolen (by YUKOS) not from the plaintiffs in this case, but from entirely different people (Putin was referring to "the people" - Eds). According to our Prime Minister, the money has been given back to these other people on his directive. Because the prosecution has not discovered any other source of my or YUKOS money except the oil extracted by YUKOS, obviously Vladimir Putin knows some circumstances, hidden from the court, which you, Your Honour, would be interested to know in order not to diverge from the opinion of the Prime Minister."
Khodorkovsky assured the presiding judge that he (Khodorkovsky) and his lawyers would petition for Putin to be summoned to the Khamovnichesky court to give a more detailed account of how the money from the sale of YUKOS assets has been spent. The judge did not reply.