Comments on Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Literature Award
Receiving an award from Znamya Magazine on behalf of her father, Mikhail Khodorkovsky' daughter Anastasia, said: "I am very happy and it is a great honour for me to accept this prize on behalf of my father, who remains a very important person in my life." Anastasia lamented the fact that she can only see her father behind bars, and added that she has spent a third of her life waiting for his freedom, whilest her bothers had been without their father for more than half of theirs. She added: "I hope he will come back and we'll be together as a family again...Papa asked me to tell you not to lose hope and to have faith that justice will prevail."
Natalia Ivanova, deputy editor of the Znamya Magazine, also praised Khodorkovsky's optimistic temperament. She said: "Many who are in trouble would focus on their problems but Mikhail Khodorkovsky is worried about Russia's fate." She added that the magazine has asked him to write a Nobel speech, to be published in the third issue.
Writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, whose dialogue with Khodorkovsky was the subject of the award, said: "Although the Dialogues are not published, I have a feeling that we still continue our dialogue and it will go on." She added that she was please to see other businessmen "waking up" to the cause, noting that although they did not speak out openly, they have started to follow Khodorkovsky's lead. Ulitskaya said: "I think this might be the way to change our not-so-happy reality." Ulitskaya also said that her correspondence with Khodorkovsky, and his previous exchange of letters with writers Boris Akunin and Boris Strugatsky, would soon be published in book form.
Ekaterina Genieva, director of the Foreign Literature Library, concurred. She said: "We believe that a dialogue is the best way to unite people by expanding their knowledge and breaking prejudice."'
Read Khodorkovsky's dialogue with Lyudmila Uliskaya >>
Read an article in The Moscow Times covering the award ceremony >>