MOSCOW, Oct. 11 - Former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky's defense attorney believes there is similarity between his client's trial and that of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in that both were politically motivated.

"Parallels are always something more emotional than material. Certainly, there are reasons to say that Tymoshenko's trial, as well as Khodorkovsky's trial, is political. And the main persons who directed the investigation's and the court's steps in both cases were the chiefs of state," Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt told Interfax.