Khodorkovsky's Words
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has long been an outspoken and prominent voice in Russia. Before his arrest he decried rampant corruption in the government and championed a bold vision for harmonizing Russian business with the rest of the world.
During his trial he denounced the proceedings as based on "conjecture and falsification" designed to prevent him from "obstruct[ing] the plundering of the company [YUKOS]." Noting he could have left Russia before his arrest but stayed "because I love Russia and believe in its future as a strong and law-governed state," Khodorkovsky charged an appeals court to render a just decision: "I have done my duty before my country: I have remained here and lost everything. Please do yours."
Khodorkovsky has also written extensively about the social, political, and economic dynamics in Russia. In a series of notable articles - Liberalism in Crisis, April 2004; Property and Freedom, December 2004; A Turn to the Left, August 2005; Left Turn - 2, November 2005; A Turn to the Left 3, Global Perestroika, November 2008 - Khodorkovsky attacks the "parasitic policies" of the government and presents a 12-year plan for Russia's development.
Ever defiant and articulate from his Siberian cell, even when punished with solitary confinement after making statements and giving interviews in publications such as Russian Esquire and the Financial Times, Khodorkovsky rejected the new charges brought against him as far back as in February 2007 and then in June 2008 as a "shameful farce." He believes his and Lebedev's fate "will be determined by the future of our homeland, by what shape it will take following the change of regime in 2008."