Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s decade of unjust imprisonment is a ‘totemic’ example of how corruption and human rights abuse feed off each other to create a climate of repression that keeps the Putin regime in power, the European Parliament heard today.

Khodorkovsky’s case was highlighted at a hearing in Brussels looking at the links between corruption and human rights abuse in third countries.

Julia Pettengill, Founder and Chair of the Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, told the hearing in her working paper that Khodorkovsky’s public criticism of corruption in Russia in 2003, while he was still Chief Executive of oil company Yukos, was the primary reason why he was targeted by the Kremlin.

Ms Pettengill, who will shortly publish a report analysing corruption in Russia, pointed out the link between the human rights abuses that Khodorkovsky suffered from his arrest in 2003 and the subsequent forced bankruptcy of Yukos, whose assets were sold off to the benefit of key regime insiders.

Ms Pettengill added that because corruption is essentially orchestrated and sanctioned by the highest levels of the state, it can only function effectively with a parallel effort by the state apparatus – especially police, prosecutors and judges – to undermine citizens’ human rights.

The hearing also discussed the cases of Sergei Magnitsky and Alexey Navalny, both of which were cited as prime examples of the irony of the Russian state using trumped-up charges of corruption against anti-corruption whistle-blowers. Magnitsky was killed in a Russian prison for exposing a massive tax fraud by state officials, whereas Navalny is charged with financial crimes despite what Ms Pettengill called ‘the lack of convincing evidence’.

A video of the hearing is available HERE