Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax) - Russia's ex-prime minister and leader of the Russian People's Democratic Union Mikhail Kasyanov has claimed he is ready to appear as a witness in the trial of former head of the defunct oil company Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev.

"I am ready to appear in court for hearings in the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev case and to answer all questions," Kasyanov told Interfax on Friday, when asked to comment on claims by Khodorkovsky's defense, that several persons, among them Kasyanov, have been summoned to court as witnesses.

Kasyanov also said that, "during his tenure as prime minister he was critical of the law enforcement agencies' moves from the first day of Lebedev and Khodorkovsky's arrest." "Later, after examining individual aspects of the indictment, I declared that the case was politically motivated," he said.