Whistleblower lawyer Alexei Navalny joined the legal team of a Yukos lawyer, who expects to be charged in connection with the main Yukos case, Gazeta.ru reported Thursday.
Navalny, an expert on corporate legislation, would provide professional expertise but not lead the team working for Pavel Ivlev.
Navalny, who was the key figure behind last month’s anti-government protests, told the news web site that the arrangement was made in November but the news was not made public before.
Ivlev and Navalny met each other during Navalny’s stint at Yale University in 2010, said a former Yukos lawyer, who moved to the United States in 2005.
Ivlev is under investigation in connection with the so-called “mother Yukos case,” which spawned several separate criminal cases, including those of former company CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been jailed until 2016 over the company’s alleged economic machinations. Their supporters insist the cases were fabricated and made on the order of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over his political and business disputes with Khodorkovsky.
