The victory of the Democratic Party in the US congressional elections may result in a spurt of American interest in the Yukos case, since Democrat Tom Lantos, known for his robust criticism of the Russian authorities’ actions in the Khodorkovsky affair, will be becoming chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Tom Lantos attended a hearing at the Meshchansky Court and was critical of the way the trial was being conducted. ‘It was painful to look at Khodorkovsky behind bars, like an animal in a cage. It simply isn’t acceptable in a civilized country’, Lantos told NTV on June 1, 2005. The congressman described the trial of the Yukos bosses as ‘corruption-ridden’ and Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a ‘political prisoner’. ‘After today’s sentence, we can no longer see Russia as a democratic country’, he said after the trial closed.