Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Encyclopedia
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
- to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman. In 2004, Khodorkovsky was the wealthiest man in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and was 16th on Forbes list of billionaires
Forbes list of billionaires
Forbes list of billionaires is based on an annual assessment of wealth and assets compiled and published by Forbes magazine on March 10, 2011.-Forbes list of billionaires :...
, although much of his wealth evaporated because of the collapse in the value of his holding in the Russian petroleum company Yukos
YUKOS
OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...
.
On 25 October 2003, Khodorkovsky was arrested at Novosibirsk airport by the Russian prosecutor general's office on charges of fraud. Shortly thereafter, on 31 October, the government under Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
froze shares of Yukos because of tax charges. The Russian Government took further actions against Yukos, leading to a collapse in the share price. It purported to sell a major asset of Yukos in December 2004.
On 31 May 2005, Khodorkovsky was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to nine years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to 8 years. In 2003, prior to his arrest, Khodorkovsky funded several Russian parties, including Yabloko
Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (Russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко» Rossiyskaya obyedinyonnaya demokraticheskaya partiya "Yabloko"; is a Russian social...
, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
, and even, allegedly, the pro-Kremlin United Russia
United Russia
United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...
.
In October 2005 he was moved into prison camp number 13 in the city of Krasnokamensk, Zabaykalsky Krai.
In March 2006, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine surmised that Khodorkovsky's personal fortune had declined to a fraction of its former level, stating that he "still has somewhere below $500 m."
On 31 March 2009, a new trial of Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
began in Moscow on fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering. On 27 December 2010, a judge found both men guilty of the charges laid against them in 2009. In October, prosecutors asked for a 14 year sentence but indicated that it should include time already served. This would mean that Khodorkovsky and his partner could remain in jail until 2017; however, Khodorkovsky's defense have vowed to appeal the sentence. Suggesting that the legal process was only 'gloss', a US diplomat has described his trial as 'lipstick on a political pig'.
On 30 December 2010, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment in the second trial. This term includes the sentence from the first trial.
Khodorkovsky appealed his convictions to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
. On 31 May 2011 the court ruled that Khodorkovsky failed to prove that his prosecution was politically motivated. The court ruled, however, that Russia committed serious violations of Khodorkovsky's rights during his arrest and pretrial detention.
Early years and entrepreneurship in Soviet Union
Early lifeKhodorkovsky grew up in an ordinary Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
family in a two-room apartment in Moscow. He has a Jewish father and a Christian mother. The young Khodorkovsky was ambitious. He received excellent grades. He then attempted and succeeded in building a career as a communist functionary. He became deputy head of Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
(the Communist Youth League) at his university, the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology, where he graduated in chemical engineering in 1986. The Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
career was one of the ways to get into the ranks of communist apparatchiks and to achieve the highest possible living standard.
After perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
started, Khodorkovsky used his connections within the communist structures to gain a foothold in the developing free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
. He used the help of some powerful people to start his business activities under the cover of Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
. Friendship with another Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
leader, Alexey Golubovich, helped him greatly in his further success, since Golubovich's parents held top positions in the State Bank of the USSR. He acquired Yukos
YUKOS
OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...
for $300 million.
Café and trading
With partners from Komsomol, and technically operating under its authority, Khodorkovsky opened his first business in 1986, a private café; an enterprise made possible by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's programme of perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
and glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
. In 1987 they opened a "Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth
Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth
Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth , NTTM) were established in late Soviet Union during perestroika as enterprises whose goal was commercialization of science and technology....
" (which eventually allowed him to found the bank Menatep). In addition to importing and reselling computers, the "scientific" center was involved in trading a wide range of other products.
By 1988, he had built an import-export business with a turnover of 80 million rubles a year (about $10 million USD).
In 1992 he was appointed chairman of the Investment Promotion Fund of the fuel and power industry.
He was appointed Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia in March 1993 .
Banking
Armed with cash from his business operations, Khodorkovsky and his partners used their international connections to obtain a banking licence to create Bank Menatep
Bank Menatep
Bank Menatep was a US$29 billion holding company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company. It was involved in the US$4.8 billion diversion of International Monetary Fund funds.-Scandal:...
in 1989. As one of Russia's first privately owned banks, Menatep expanded quickly, by using most of the deposits raised to finance Khodorkovsky's successful import-export operations.
Bank Menatep was also successful in forcing the government to award them the right to manage funds allocated for the victims of the Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
nuclear accident.
In a prophetic statement of the time, Khodorkovsky is quoted as saying:
Khodorkovsky's connections with Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
and CPSU structures would prove critical in his success.
Political ambitions
Khodorkovsky also became a philanthropist, whose efforts include the provision of internet-training centres for teachers, a forum for the discussion by journalists of reform and democracy, and the establishment of foundations which finance archaeological digs, cultural exchanges, summer camps for children and a boarding school for orphans. Khodorkovsky's critics saw this as political posturing, in light of his funding of several political parties ahead of the elections for the State DumaState Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
to be held in late 2003.
He is openly critical of what he refers to as 'managed democracy
Guided Democracy
Guided democracy, also called managed democracy, is a term for a democratic government with increased autocracy. Governments are legitimated by elections that, while free and fair, are used by the government to continue their same policies and goals...
' within Russia. Careful normally not to criticise the elected leadership, he says the military and security services exercise too much authority. He told The Times:
- "It is the Singapore model, it is a term that people understand in Russia these days. It means that theoretically you have a free press, but in practice there is self-censorship. Theoretically you have courts; in practice the courts adopt decisions dictated from above. Theoretically there are civil rights enshrined in the constitution; in practice you are not able to exercise some of these rights."
Khordorkovsky promoted social programs through Yukos in regions where the company operated. One such program that was popular in Angarsk, "New Civilization" promoted student government for young adults. The scout program incorporated aspects of student government. Participants from throughout the country spent their holidays organizing student governed bodies at summer camps.
Relationship to Vladmir Putin
In February, 2003, at a televised meeting at the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky argued with Putin, challenging him on questions of government corruption, and implying that top state officials were pocketing millions in bribes. Privately, Putin told Lord John Browne, the former head of BP, “I have eaten more dirt than I need to from that man.”Merging with Sibneft
In April 2003, Khodorkovsky announced that Yukos would merge with Sibneft, creating an oil company with reserves equal to those of Western petroleum multinationals. Khodorkovsky had been reported to be negotiating with ExxonMobilExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
and ChevronTexaco about them taking a large stake in Yukos. Sibneft was created in 1995, at the suggestion of Boris Berezovsky, comprising some of the most valuable assets of a state-owned oil company. In a controversial auction process, Berezovsky acquired 50% of the company at what most agree was a very low price.
When Berezovsky had a confrontation with Putin, and felt compelled to leave Russia for London (where he was granted asylum) he assigned his shares in Sibneft to Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich
Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich is a Russian businessman and the main owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC.In 2003, Abramovich was named Person of the Year by Expert, a Russian business magazine. He shared this title with Mikhail Khodorkovsky...
. Abramovich subsequently agreed to the merger.
With 19.5 billion barrels (3 km³) of oil and gas, the merged entity would have owned the second-largest oil and gas reserves in the world after ExxonMobil and would have been the fourth largest in the world in terms of production, pumping 2.3 million barrels (370,000 m³) of crude a day. However, the merger was recalled by the shareholders of Sibneft after the arrest of Khodorkovsky.
Prosecution
In early July 2003, Platon LebedevPlaton Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
, a Khodorkovsky partner and second largest shareholder in Yukos, was arrested on suspicion of illegally acquiring a stake in a state-owned fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
firm, Apatit
Apatit
Apatit JSC is a Russia-based company engaged in the extraction of mineral raw materials for manufacture of chemicals and fertilizers....
, in 1994. The arrest was followed by investigations into taxation returns filed by Yukos, and a delay to the antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
commission's approval for its merger with Sibneft.
Khodorkovsky was himself arrested in October 2003, charged with fraud and tax evasion. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office claims Khodorkovsky and his associates cost the state more than $1 billion in lost revenues.
Subsequent to Khodorkovsky's arrest, Leonid Nevzlin
Leonid Nevzlin
Leonid Borisovich Nevzlin is a Russian-Israeli businessman. Nevzlin was a high ranking executive at Yukos, once a Russian oil firm before it was extinguished by the Russian government. That government is requesting his extradition due to hotly disputed criminal allegations against him and other...
gained a controlling stake in Yukos when Khodorkovsky handed him a 60% share in the holding company that controlled the firm. Nevzlin is himself now wanted in Russia and has since fled to Israel.
On 31 March 2009, a new trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev began in Moscow on fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering.
The two men face up to 22 more years in prison. Khodorkovsky refused to enter a plea, claiming that he did not understand the charges.
According to the sentence in the second trial, the companies that extracted oil (such as Yuganskneftegaz
Yuganskneftegaz
Yuganskneftegaz is a wholly integrated subsidiary of Rosneft that owns and operates the second largest oil production complex in Russia. It was formerly the most important production subsidiary of Yukos, but was expropriated by the Russian government and given to Rosneft, a state-owned...
and Tomskneft, in which Yukos held major stake, but did not have 100% ownership), would sell all their oil to different shell companies below market rates, and the shell companies would re-sell it to the eventual buyer at market rates. Shell companies, unlike oil-extracting companies, would be owned 100% by Khodorkovsky, Lebedev et al. Those shell companies had very few employees, conducted no other activity than reselling the oil, and some of them had offices in office buildings owned by Yukos. As a result, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted of embezzlement from the oil companies and some of the oil companies' minority shareholders acted as witnesses for the prosecution during the trial.
In May 2010, Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...
, who became an opposition figure after serving as Putin's prime minister from 2000 to 2004, told the court that Putin, while president, had been angered by Khodorkovsky's support of the Communist Party together with liberal Yabloko
Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (Russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко» Rossiyskaya obyedinyonnaya demokraticheskaya partiya "Yabloko"; is a Russian social...
and the Union of Right Forces
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...
.
Impact of arrest
Initially news of Khodorkovsky's arrest had a significant effect on the share price of YukosYUKOS
OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...
. The Moscow stock market was closed for the first time ever for an hour in order to assure stable trading as prices collapsed. Russia's currency, the ruble
Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...
, was also hit as some foreign investors questioned the stability of the Russian market. Media reaction in Moscow was almost universally negative in blanket coverage, some of the more enthusiastic pro-business press discussed the end of capitalism, while even the government-owned press criticised the "absurd" method of Khodorkovsky's arrest.
Yukos moved quickly to replace Khodorkovsky with Russian born U.S. citizen Simon Kukes. Simon Kukes, who became the CEO of Yukos, was already an experienced oil executive.
The U.S. State Department said the arrest "raised a number of concerns over the arbitrary use of the judicial system" and was likely to be very damaging to foreign investment in Russia, as it appeared there were "selective" prosecutions occurring against Yukos officials but not against others.
A week after the arrest, the Prosecutor-General froze Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos to prevent Khodorkovsky from selling his shares although he retains all the shares' voting rights and receives dividends.
Khodorkovsky's arrest alarmed foreign investors and policymakers alike.
In 2003 Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos passed to Jacob Rothschild
Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild
Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, Bt, OM, GBE, FBA is a British investment banker and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers...
under a deal they concluded prior to Khodorkovsky's arrest.
Criminal charges
The criminal charges against Khodorkovsky read as follows:Khodorkovsky was charged with acting illegally in the privatisation process of the former state-owned mining and fertiliser company Apatit. It is alleged that the CEO of Bank Menatep and large shareholder in Yukos Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
assisted Khodorkovsky. Lebedev was arrested and charged in July 2003.
According to the prosecution, all four companies that participated in the privatization tender for 20% of Apatit's stock in 1994 were shell companies controlled by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, registered to create an illusion of competitive bidding that was required by the law. One of the shell companies that won that tender (AOZT Volna) was supposed to invest about US$280 million in Apatit during the next year, according to their winning bid. The investment was not made and Apatit sued to return their 20% of stock. At this point, Khodorkovsky et al. had transferred the required sum into Apatit's account at Khodorkovsky's bank Menatep and sent the financial documents to the court, so Apatit's lawsuit was thrown out. The very next day the money was transferred back from Apatit's account to Volna's account. After that the stock was sold off by Volna in small installments to several smaller shell companies, which were, in turn, owned by more Khodorkovsky-owned companies in a complicated web of relationships. Literally dozens of companies were registered for these purposes in Cyprus, Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands, Turks & Caicos and other offshore havens. Volna actually settled the Apatit lawsuit in 2002 by paying $15 million to the privatization authorities, even though it did not own Apatit stock anymore at the time. However, according to the prosecution, that $15 million sum was based on the incorrect valuation which was too low. Allegedly, at the time Apatit was selling off the fertilizers it was producing to multiple Khodorkovsky-owned shell companies below market value, and, therefore, Apatit formally did not have much profit, lowering its valuation. Those shell companies then resold the fertilizer at the market value, generating pure profit for Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and others.
In addition, prosecutors conducted an extensive investigation into Yukos for offences that went beyond the financial and tax-related charges. Reportedly there were three cases of murder and one of attempted murder linked to Yukos, if not Khodorkovsky himself.
One area of interest to the Prosecutor-General included the 1998 assassination of the mayor of Nefteyugansk
Nefteyugansk
Nefteyugansk is a city in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located south of the Ob River, close to the larger city of Surgut. Population: It is currently served by Surgut International Airport....
in the Tyumen
Tyumen
Tyumen is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River east of Moscow. Population: Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 16th century to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most...
region, Vladimir Petukhov. Nefteyugansk was the main centre of oil production within the Yukos empire. Suspicions arose in Nefteyugansk because Petukhov had publicly and frequently campaigned about Yukos' non-payment of local taxes.
President Putin himself commented on this aspect of the investigation while questioned about the investigation into Yukos in September 2003. President Putin said:
The verdict of the trial, repeating the prosecutors' indictments almost verbatim, was 662 pages long. As is customary in Russian trials, the judges read the verdict aloud, beginning on 16 May 2005 and finishing on 31 May. Khodorkovsky's lawyers alleged that it was read as slowly as possible to minimize public attention*.
Khodorkovsky was defended by Karinna Moskalenko
Karinna Moskalenko
Karinna Akopovna Moskalenko , is Russia’s leading human rights lawyer, defending, amongst others, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov and Alexander Litvinenko...
, who now faces being disbarred by the Russian government for her alleged negligence in defending him. Khodorkovsky denies being dissatisfied with her conduct.
Prosecutors stated that they operated independently of the government appointed by President Putin. The Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov
Vladimir Ustinov
Vladimir Vasilyevich Ustinov is a Russian politician.He currently is the Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District. Until 2008, he was Russia's Minister of Justice....
was appointed by former President Yeltsin and was not seen as being particularly close to Putin, who once tried to remove him. However, he was politically ambitious and prosecuting Russia's most prominent and successful tycoon was perceived as a boost to his political career and intended candidacy for the Duma.
Judicial controversy
On 14 February 2011, Natalya Vasilyeva, an assistant to the judge who convicted Khodorkovsky, Viktor Danilkin, said that the judge did not write the verdict, and had read it against his will. Essentially, Natalya Vasilyeva said the judge's verdict was "brought from the Moscow City Court". In her statement she also noted that "everyone in the judicial community understands perfectly that this is a rigged case, a fixed trial". On 24 February Ms. Vasilyeva underwent a polygraphPolygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
test, which indicated that she likely believes that Mr. Danilkin acted under pressure. Judge Danilkin responded that "the assertion by Natalya Vasilyeva was nothing more than slander".
Third party support
Khodorkovsky has received a high level of independent third party support from groups and individuals who believe the process, charges, and two trials against him are politically motivated. On 29 Nov. 2004, The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights published a report which concluded "the Assembly considers that the circumstances of the arrest and prosecution of leading Yukos executives suggest that the interest of the State’s action in these cases goes beyond the mere pursuit of criminal justice, to include such elements as to weaken an outspoken political opponent, to intimidate other wealthy individuals and to regain control of strategic economic assets."In June 2009 the Council of Europe published a report which criticized the Russian government's handling of the Yukos case, entitled "Allegations of Politically Motivated Abuses of the Criminal Justice System in Council of Europe Member States"
"The Yukos affair epitomises this authoritarian abuse of the system. I wish to recall here the excellent work done by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, in her two reports2 on this subject. I do not intend to comment on the ins and outs of this case which saw Yukos, a privately owned oil company, made bankrupt and broken up for the benefit of the state owned company Rosneft. The assets were bought at auction by a rather obscure financial group, Baikalfinansgroup, for almost €7 billion. It is still not known who is behind this financial group. A number of experts believe that the state-owned company Gazprom had a hand in the matter. The former heads of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, were sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for fraud and tax evasion. Vasiliy Aleksanyan, former vice-chairman of the company, who is suffering from Aids, was released on bail in January 2009 after being held in inhuman conditions condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.3 Lastly, Svetlana Bakhmina, deputy head of Yukos’s legal department, who was sentenced in 2005 to six and a half years’ imprisonment for tax fraud, saw her application for early release turned down in October 2008, even though she had served half of her sentence, had expressed “remorse” and was seven months pregnant. Thanks to the support of thousands of people around the world and the personal intervention of the United States President, George W. Bush, she was released in April 2009 after giving birth to a girl on 28 November 2008."
Statements of support for Khodorkovsky and criticism of the state's persecution have been passed by the Italian Parliament, the German Bundestag, and the U.S. House of Representatives, among many other official bodies.
In June 2010, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Elie Wiesel began a campaign to raise awareness of the Khodorkovsky trial and advocate for his release.
In November 2010, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
Germany began a petition campaign demanding that President Medvedev get an independent review of all criminal charges against Khodorkovsky, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. On 24 May 2011, Amnesty International criticized Lebedev and Khodorkovsky's second trial, named them prisoners of conscience, and called for their release on the expiry of their initial sentences.
Late Yelena Bonner
Yelena Bonner
Yelena Bonner was a human rights activist in the former Soviet Union and wife of the noted physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. During her decades as a dissident, Bonner was noted for her characteristic blunt honesty and courage.-Youth:...
, widow of Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
, never stopped defending Khodorkhovsky. "I think that any person comes a political prisoner if the law is applied to him selectively, and this is an absolutely clear case,. This is a glaringly lawless action.
In prison
On 30 May 2005, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 9 years in a medium security prison. At the time, he was detained in Moscow prison Matrosskaya TishinaMatrosskaya Tishina
Matrosskaya Tishina is a detention facility located in northern Moscow, known by the name of the street on which it is located...
.
On 1 August 2005, a political essay written by Khodorkovsky in his prison cell, titled "Left Turn", was published in Vedomosti
Vedomosti
Vedomosti is a Russian language business daily. It is a joint venture between Dow Jones, the Financial Times and Sanoma, publishers of The Moscow Times....
, calling for a turn to a more sociallly responsible state. He stated that: "The next Russian administration will have to include the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
and the Motherland Party
Rodina
Rodina or Motherland-National Patriotic Union was one of the four parties that controlled seats in the Russian legislature in 2003-2007...
, or the historical successors to these parties. The left-wing liberals, including Yabloko
Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (Russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко» Rossiyskaya obyedinyonnaya demokraticheskaya partiya "Yabloko"; is a Russian social...
, and right-wing Ryzhkov
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ryzhkov is a Russian Professor of the Higher School of Economics , Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member ....
, Khakamada
Irina Hakamada
Irina Mutsuovna Khakamada is a Russian politician who ran in the Russian presidential election, 2004. She is a member of The Other Russia coalition.-Biography:...
and others should decide whether to join the broad social-democratic coalition or to remain grumpy and without relevance on the political sidelines. In my opinion, they have to join because only the broadest composition of a coalition in which liberal-socialist (social-democratic) views will play the key role can save us from the emergence, in the process of this turn to the left turn, from a new ultra-authoritarian regime. The new Russian authorities will have to address a left-wing agenda and meet an irrepressible demand by the people for justice. This will mean in the first instance the problems of legalizing privatization and restoring paternalistic programs and approaches in several areas."
On 19 August 2005, Khodorkovsky announced that he was on a hunger strike in protest at his friend and associate Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
's placement in the punishment cell of the jail. According to Khodorkovsky, Lebedev had Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
and heart conditions, and keeping him in the punishment cell would be equivalent to murder.
On 31 August 2005, he announced that he would run for parliament. This initiative was based on the legal loophole: a convicted felon cannot vote or stand for a parliament, but if his case is lodged with the Court of Appeal he still has all the electoral rights. This "loophole," or alternatively, ordinary provision of appellate procedure, is a common practice in US federal and state court. Usually it requires around a year to get somebody's appeal through the Appeal Court, so it should have been enough time for Khodorkovsky to be elected. To imprison a member of Russian parliament, the parliament should vote for stripping his or her immunity. Thus, he had a hope to escape from his prosecution. But the plans were flawed, as the Court of Appeal unusually took only a couple of weeks to process Khodorkovsky's appeal, reduce his sentence by one year and invalidate any of his electoral plans until the end of his sentence.
As reported on 20 October 2005, Khodorkovsky was delivered to the labor camp YaG-14/10 (Исправительное учреждение общего режима ЯГ-14/10) of the town of Krasnokamensk near Chita. The labor camp is attached to a uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
mining and processing plant and during Soviet times had a reputation as a place from which nobody returned alive. According to news reports, currently the prisoners are not used in uranium mining and have much better chances of survival than in the past. The second part of Khodorkovsky essay/thesis "Left Turn" was published in Kommersant on 11 November 2005, in which he expounded his social democratic manifesto.
On 13 April 2006, Khodorkovsky was attacked by a prison mate while he was asleep. It was speculated that a prison mate tried to disfigure his face but not to kill him. Jail sources told reporters that a fellow prisoner Alexander Kuchma attacked him after a heated conversation. Western media immediately accused the Russian authorities of trying to play down the incident. In January 2009, the same prisoner filed a lawsuit for 500,000 rubles (~$15,000) against Khodorkovsky, accusing him of homosexual harassment.
On 5 February 2007, new charges of embezzlement and money laundering were brought against both Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev
Platon Leonidovich Lebedev is a former CEO of Group Menatep, currently imprisoned in Russia, and is best known as a close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.-Conviction:...
. Khodorkovsky's supporters point out that the charges come just months before Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were to become eligible for parole, as well as just a year before the next Russian presidential election.
On 28 January 2008, Khodorkovsky started a hunger strike to help his associate Vasily Aleksanyan
Vasily Aleksanyan
Vasily Georgievich Aleksanyan was a Russian-Armenian lawyer, businessman, and a former Executive Vice President of Yukos oil company. On 6 April 2006 he was arrested as a suspected accomplice to tax evasion and money laundering...
, who is ill and was held in jail and who was denied the necessary medical treatment. Aleksanyan was transferred from a pre-trial prison to an oncological hospital on 8 February 2008, after which Khodorkovsky called off his strike.
While Khodorkovsky was imprisoned, Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
, the Estonian composer, wrote his latest symphony, Symphony no. 4, and dedicated it to Mikhail. The symphony was premiered on 10 January 2009 in Los Angeles at Walt Disney Concert Hall conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
In prison, Khodorkovsky announced that he would research for, and prepare, a PhD dissertation on the topic of Russian oil policy. The third part of Khodorkovsky's essay/thesis "Left Turn" with the subheading "Global Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
" was published in Vedomosti on 7 November 2008, in which he stated: "Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's victory in the US presidential elections is not simply the latest change of power in one individual country, albeit a superpower. We are standing on the threshold of a change in the paradigm of world development. The era whose foundations were laid by Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
three decades ago is ending. Unconditionally including myself in that part of society that has liberal views, I see: ahead – is a Turn to the Left."
In May 2010, Khodorkovsky went on a three-day hunger-strike to protest what he said was a violation of the recent law against imprisonment of persons accused of financial crimes. The law was pushed by President Medvedev after the death of Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky was a Russian attorney whose death in police custody generated international media attention and launched an investigation into allegations of abuse. Magnitsky, who had alleged wide-scale tax fraud sanctioned by officials before being himself arrested, died days...
who died in pre-trial detention in a Moscow prison in 2008.
Political transformation
After six years in prison, observers have argued that Khodorkovsky has been transformed from an oligarch into a martyr: "He speaks with the authority of a chief executive of what was once Russia’s largest oil company. He explains how Yukos and Russia’s oil industry functioned, but he goes beyond business matters. What he is defending is not his long-lost business, but his human rights. The transformation of Mr. Khodorkovsky from a ruthless oligarch, operating in a virtually lawless climate, into a political prisoner and freedom fighter is one of the more intriguing tales in post-communist Russia."The political transformation of Khodorkovsky is cited in many of his writings from prison. On 26 October 2009, he published a response to Dmitri Medvedev's "Forward, Russia!" article in Vedomosti, arguing that "authoritarianism in its current Russian form does not meet many key humanitarian requirements customary for any country that wishes to consider itself modern and European."
On 28 January 2010, Khodorkovsky authored an opinion article in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, which argued that "Russia must make a historic choice. Either we turn back from the dead end toward which we have been heading in recent years – and we do it soon – or else we continue in this direction and Russia in its current form simply ceases to exist."
On 3 March 2010, Khodorkovsky wrote an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the "conveyor belt" of Russian justice. In this article, he warns that "siloviki conveyor belt, which has undermined justice is truly the gravedigger of modern Russian statehood. Because it turns many thousands of the country's most active, sensible and independent citizens against this statehood – with enviable regularity."
Release date
According to his official site, Khodorkovsky would have been eligible for early release, but an alleged conspiracy involving jail guards and a cell mate resulted in a statement that Mikhail had violated one of the prison rules. The statement was false, but it was sufficient to make Khodorkovsky lose his rights, once the statement was logged in his file.It was predicted that he might be released by the middle of 2011, although Khodorkovsky has been found guilty (27 December 2010) of fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering, which could lead to a new sentence of up to 22 years. He alleged that both cases were instigated by Igor Sechin
Igor Sechin
Igor Ivanovich Sechin is a Russian official, considered a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Sechin is often described as one of Putin's most conservative counselors and the leader of the Kremlin's Siloviki faction, a statist lobby gathering former security services agents...
. “The second as well as the first case were organized by Igor Sechin,” the tycoon claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times from a remand prison in the Siberian city of Chita, 4000 miles (6,437.4 km) east of Moscow.
On 22 August 2008, he was denied parole by Judge Igor Faliliyev, at the Ingodinsky regional court in Chita, Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. The basis for this was in part because Khodorkovsky "refused to attend jail sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
classes".
In the second trial, the prosecutors have asked the judge for a 14-year sentence, which is just one year less than the maximum. The judge Danilkin handed down the verdict on 30 December 2010 where he upheld the prosecutors' claims. Taking into account the time already served, Khodorkovsky will be released in 2017. U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, the U.S. State Department, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
, and British Foreign Minister William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
condemned or expressed concern over Khodorkovsky's extended sentence. The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
said it brought Russia's legal system into question.
On 15 February Vyacheslav Lebedev, chairman of Russia's Supreme Court, suggested reviving an old Soviet practice under which a maximum sentence for a person charged with different crimes should not exceed the sentence attached to the most serious charge: in Khodorkovsky's case, nine years. Since he has been in jail since October 2003, this would mean releasing him in October 2012 – a few months after the next presidential election.
Outcome of Second Trial
Khodorkovsky became eligible for parole after having served half of his original sentence, however, in February 2007, state prosecutors began to prepare new charges of embezzlement, leading up to a second trial which began in March 2009. Prosecutors filed new charges against Khodorkovsky, alleging that he stole 350 million tons of oil, charges which Kommersant described as "Compared with the previous version, only stylistic inaccuracy has been improved, and some of the paragraphs have been swapped." Others pointed out that the new charges were impossible given that he was previously convicted on tax evasion of the same allegedly stolen oil. According to Khodorkovsky's lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, "The position of the prosecutors is also self-contradictory. (...) Khodorkovsky is now serving a sentence for tax evasion, and if they are asserting that he stole all the oil his company produced, what did he go to prison for the first time if there was nothing to be taxed?"During a visit to Moscow in July 2009, President Barack Obama said: "it does seem odd to me that these new charges, which appear to be a repackaging of the old charges, should be surfacing now, years after these two individuals have been in prison and as they become eligible for parole."
The verdict was originally scheduled for 15 December, but was delayed without explanation until the 27th. Just a few days before the verdict was read by the judge before the court, Vladimir Putin made public comments with regard to his opinion of Khodorkovsky's guilt, saying "a thief should sit in jail." On 27 December 2010 Judge Viktor Danilkin handed down a guilty verdict, convicting Khodorkovsky and Lebedev of stealing the full 350 million tons of oil, instead of the reduced 218 million tons as requested by the prosecutors. The judge sentenced them to 13.5 years in prison, later reduced to 12 years, one year less than the maximum sentence, which, when combined with time already served, will keep them in jail until 2017.
On 24 May 2011, Khodorkovsky's appeal hearing was held, and Judge Danilkin rejected the challenge. Following the rejection of the appeal, the human rights group Amnesty International declared Khodorkovsky and Lebedev as "prisoners of conscience," remarking in a statement that "Whatever the rights and wrongs of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev’s first convictions there can no longer be any doubt that their second trial was deeply flawed and politically motivated."
In June 2011, Khodorkovsky was sent to prison colony No. 9 of Segezha, in the northern region of Karelia near the Finnish border.
Final Words from Second Trial
On 2 November 2010, Mikhail Khodorkovsky delivered his final words to the court in the closing of the second trial. The speech, which has received significant media coverage, included the following passages:- I am ashamed for my country.
- Your honour, I think we all perfectly understand the significance of our trial extends far beyond the fates of Platon [Lebedev] and myself. And even beyond the fates of all those who have innocently suffered in the course of the reprisals against YUKOS that have taken place on such a huge scale, those I found myself unable to protect, but about whom I have not forgotten. I remember every day.
- Let’s ask ourselves, what does the entrepreneur, the top class organizer of production, or simply an educated, creative individual, think today looking at our trial and knowing that the result is absolutely predictable?
- The obvious conclusion a thinking person would come to is chilling in its simplicity: the bureaucratic and law enforcement machine can do whatever it wants. There is no right of private property. No person who conflicts with the “system” has any rights whatsoever.
- Even when enshrined in law, rights are not protected by the courts. Because the courts are either also afraid, or are part of the “system”. Does it come as a surprise that thinking people do not strive to realize themselves here in Russia?
He continued:
- I am far from being an ideal person, but I am a person with an idea. For me, as for anybody, it is hard to live in prison, and I do not want to die here.
- But if I have to, I will have no hesitation. What I believe in is worth dying for. I think I have shown this.
In response to Khodorkovsky's speech, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera wrote, "I have never been so moved by the words of a businessman. (...) It should make no difference that he was once rich and once an oligarch. What matters is that Mikhail Khodorkovsky is fighting for political freedom and the rule of law, putting his life on the line for ideals we claim to hold dear."
Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl
Jackson Diehl
Jackson Diehl is the Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post. He writes many of the paper's editorials on foreign affairs, helps to oversee the editorial and oped pages and authors a regular column....
argued that "Khodorkovsky delivered what is likely to stand as a historic indictment of the Putin-Medvedev regime. (...) Because he is an entrepreneur and not a poet, Khodorkovsky was regarded skeptically for many years by the sort of people who usually defend Russian dissidents. That's no longer true: Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
is campaigning for him; Nobel-winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
and French philosopher André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and writer, and member of the French new philosophers.-Early years:André Glucksmann was born in 1937, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Romania and Czechoslovakia. He studied in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale...
have taken up his case. The U.S. Senate, prompted by Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
Democrat Ben Cardin
Ben Cardin
Benjamin Louis "Ben" Cardin is the junior United States Senator from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the Senate, Cardin was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing from 1987 to 2007.Cardin was elected to succeed Paul Sarbanes in...
and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
Republican Roger Wicker
Roger Wicker
Roger Frederick Wicker is the junior U.S. Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. In December 2007 he was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott. He subsequently won the 2008 special election for the remainder of the term. Wicker served...
, passed a resolution saying Khodorkovsy and Lebedev 'are prisoners who have been denied basic due process rights under international law for political reasons.'"
Three weeks after the trial ended, Khodorkovsky managed to make his voice heard again, something he did, embarrassingly for the Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
, just as Dmitri Medvedev was giving the keynote speech at the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
in Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, Switzerland, asking for more foreign investment for Russia. A "dependent court is in no way better than a bandit’s club", stated Khodorkovsky. "Both tools are equally unacceptable for settling grievances in a civilized society." His lawyers had "invited four newspapers, including the IHT
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, to submit written questions to him after the second trial. The questions were given to him on 31 Dec., and the replies were delivered" in late January 2011. “I call on people to believe in the sincerity of President Medvedev’s attempts," Khodorkovsky added, "but not to accept desires and simulations in the place of clearly defined obligations and working institutions.”
See also
- Leonid NevzlinLeonid NevzlinLeonid Borisovich Nevzlin is a Russian-Israeli businessman. Nevzlin was a high ranking executive at Yukos, once a Russian oil firm before it was extinguished by the Russian government. That government is requesting his extradition due to hotly disputed criminal allegations against him and other...
(one of the key figures in the Yukos oil firm headed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky)
External links
- Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center (English)
- Khodorkovsky's official Russian website
- Guilty of Being Right, City Journal online, 12-28-2010
- Independent Institute Ivan Eland discusses the international fallout from Khodorkovsky's arrest
- Updated Blog on Khodorkovsky Affair
- Council on Foreign Relations Interview with Marshall I. Goldman on Khodorkovsky
- Centre for Eastern Studies report: "The Yukos Affair: its Motives and Implications" (in Polish and English)
- Khodorkovsky Legal Updates
- New York Times Magazine article on Khodorkovsky
- Keith Gessen on Khodorkovsky in the London Review of Books
- Foreign Policy article on second trial
- Julia Ioffe: "Unlikely Martyr". Tablet Magazine article on Khodorkovsky, 31 May 2011
- Michael Khodorkovsky Publications
- Khodorkovsky Related Legal Cases
- Michael Khodorkovsky Statements
- Complete text transcript and audio (Russian) of Khodorkovsky's Closing Statement at Khamovnichesky Court
- Dialogues – Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Mikhail Khodorkovsky English translation of the correspondence between Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya
- Khodorovsky film stolen (for the second time) before Berlin premiere February 2011