Karinna Moskalenko, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, spoke last week about her visit to the prison in Segezha, Karelia. In the video (which can be seen below in Russian) Karinna speaks about Khodorkovsky’s everyday life in prison.

On how he lives and what he thinks, she says: “he is so aware of the latest news that sometimes I hear things first from him. He lives through the challenges with great dignity. Everything that is uncomfortable for him, he simply doesn’t pay attention to. He follows the colony’s work’s regime strictly; he does it as “minimum minimorum”, so no one can interfere in his inner world. And he builds his inner world, and this is the inner world of a spiritually very rich man”.

Moskalenko adds that “it is hard to believe” that Khodorkovsky retains his fortitude, willpower and a positive outlook on life.

Speaking about the attitude of other prisoners towards Khodorkovsky, she mentioned his publications [the Prison’s People series], saying: “We could easily guess the situation if we read his publications on how he interacts with other prisoners, how he observes their lives, how he, on some occasions, advises them. He listens to a lot of life stories, the stories about how hard life can be for some people”.

Finally, she comments on the prison authorities. “At first, they were very curious and he was treated with some caution – what does one expect from the country’s number one prisoner? He immediately made it clear to the authorities that he doesn’t require any special treatment, special privileges or special requirements as a prisoner” recalls Moskalenko. “After a full working day, he doesn’t have much time and, it would seem, much energy left…but when we meet, I always see a cheerful, friendly man. He says briefly that all is alright, he hardly ever says anything more than that, and then he starts to read the materials that I bring, literally hundreds of pages of text… When I ask him if he is tired, he says “no, all is alright, all is good”. He is the person, who is always alright and always good”.