Russia's Minister of Trade and Industry Viktor Khristenko on Saturday said he would testify as witness at former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky's trial.
"In this case I am not just a minister, but a citizen. I should follow the summon I received. I am not going to shrink my responsibilities," Khristenko told journalists on the fringes of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. He is now accused of stealing $9.6 billion from the $15.8 billion profit generated by Yukos between 1999 and 2003, as well as 350 million tons of oil.
Earlier on Friday, Sberbank head German Gref, who was previously Russia's economy and trade minister, also said he would come to Khodorkovsky's trial.
Other high profile witnesses could include former prime ministers Mikhail Kasyanov, Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yevgeny Primakov, as well as State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, former Central Bank chief Viktor Gerashchenko and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov.
Khodorkovsky told the court earlier that he could not understand what he was accused of because his specific actions were not described in the criminal case.
ST. PETERSBURG, June 19 (RIA Novosti)
