Putin vs. Khodorkovsky (the news, analysis and sensible chuckles thread) sponsored by Club Tropical

Niccolo and Donkey Sunday 6 Mar 2016

perkunos Richard Hollywood

Khodorkovsky: I have no obligations to Putin

The exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said he has “no obligations” to Vladimir Putin as he outlined his plans to take on the Russian government in London.

Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia’s richest man , said it was a “propaganda myth” that he had promised the Russian president he would not get involved in politics after he was pardoned and released from prison in 2013.

“Putin sent me to prison for 10 years and Putin let me out … I think that makes us quits. Now we are just political opponents,” he told a mainly Russian audience at the headquarters of his foundation, Open Russia, in Mayfair.

Khodorkovsky ran the Yukos oil empire before he was jailed in 2003 on charges most observers believed to be politically motivated. He wrote to the Russian president asking to be freed so he could say farewell to his ill mother, who died shortly after his release from jail. Rumours swirled that as part of the deal, he promised Putin to stay out of Russia and out of politics.

“It’s true that when I came out of prison I didn’t want to get into politics; after 10 years in prison I just wanted to see my family. But then in 2014, the crisis in Ukraine started. Russia quickly went down the path of self-isolation and witch-hunts for enemies. It became impossible not to get involved.”

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Khodorkovsky after Putin signed decree granting him a pardon. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Russian authorities have responded by launching a new case against Khodorkovsky for the 1998 murder of a Siberian mayor, ensuring he would be arrested if he stepped foot in Russia again. He has denied the allegations and Interpol has not put him on its wanted list.

On Thursday night, he outlined plans to back a number of opposition candidates in September parliamentary elections, but said he was ultimately working to make sure plans are in place for when Putin’s government “falls”.

Khodorkovsky said Open Russia would provide logistical backing to 230 candidates running from various opposition parties or on independent tickets in September. Currently, the Duma is dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, with three other “loyal opposition” parties also represented.

It is highly unlikely that any of the independent candidates will make it into the Duma, but the goal is at least to discredit the elections and show their alleged unfairness.

“People will be jailed. People will be beaten up, people maybe will even be killed,” he said. “Those people who today enter opposition politics, they fully realise that they are taking a risk. We will do everything to make sure those risks are minimised … but it does not mean there will be no victims at all.”

Khodorkovsky recently caused controversy in Russia by posing for a photograph in London with the Russian pop singer Valeriya and her husband, Iosif Prigozhin, both of whom are staunch supporters of Putin . Fans of the singer complained it was inappropriate for her to socialise with the exiled oligarch, while many opposition figures were horrified to see Khodorkovsky with the Putin supporters.

He dismissed the criticism on Thursday, and said it was important to reach out to everyone. “I think it is incorrect to divide society into different groups … This is what could lead to collapse and civil war.”

Living in Britain, he claimed, he had noticed a “discussion culture” in which people of different political backgrounds agreed to disagree. “If you walk into a room here, if all the people are not certain that all the other people share their political views, then nobody will even start to talk about politics. I think that’s good.”

He also said he did not believe Putin himself should be put on trial, and that in the event there ever is a change of regime in Russia, Putin should have immunity. “In our country there is too much hatred, our society is too destroyed. Someone should learn to forgive. If we think we are more moral than our opponents and we hope that we are, then we should be the ones who start to forgive, however difficult it might be.”

Khodorkovsky said it was “absolutely certain” Putin would fall at some point, but it may not happen in the nearest future. He said that afterward there should be a transition government to rule for two years with limited authority before free elections are held. He previously said he was ready to become president of Russia in the future.

Few Russians have much time for the oligarchs , who became fabulously wealthy during the 1990s while most people lived in poverty. However, Khodorkovsky earned grudging respect in some quarters due to the obviously political nature of his trial and the quiet dignity with which he saw out his decade in jail.

He moved to London last year from Zurich, where he had initially been based after his release. Security at Thursday’s event was light, and he said he was not worried for his safety. “After 10 years in prison I feel safe pretty much anywhere,” he said.

Welund Tuesday 22 Nov 2016

Putin vs. Khodorkovsky (the news, analysis and sensible chuckles thread) sponsored by Club Tropical

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