On 29 November 2012, Mikhail Khodorkovsky issued a statement to the Russian Opposition Coordination Council (OCC). Khodorkovsky reiterated his sympathy for the opposition but also expresses some concerns and outlines seven points of advice for the OCC. The message can be read in Russian here, and a translation of the message can be read below:

TO THE RUSSIAN OPPOSITION COORDINATION COUNCIL

By reason of my circumstances, which are known to you, I did not run for the Opposition Coordination Council (OCC), and am not participating in your activity in any way.

Nevertheless, profoundly, I am in no way indifferent to the fate of the opposition in Russia, and equally to that of the protest movement.  I have always been, and remain, sympathetic to those goals that the organisers of the Coordination Council have set for themselves, as well as to the people who have been elected to it.  I see a multitude of like-minded people among the rank-and-file participants in the peaceful many-thousand-strong protest actions.

It therefore troubles me that no sooner had the OCC set to work than straight away the usual polemics about the date for conducting the next mass protest action, its format and slogans escalated beyond the  bounds of respectful discussion.

Opponents of the OCC, and indeed some of its supporters as well, may see in this the inability of the Council – which is still found only at the stage of self-organisation – to seek compromises.

With unfailing respect to all the participants in the dispute, I shall allow myself to express certain considerations, which perhaps you may find useful.

1. It is important to demonstrate:  the OCC has something to say to its supporters, and also potential supporters who have for now not yet taken a final decision to join the peaceful protests.
2. The OCC must declare only realistic slogans.  Moreover – ones that can be realised in the short-term or medium-term perspective.  One must not propose to participants in mass peaceful protests ideas and projects that are certainly unattainable in the foreseeable historic perspective.  To do so would lead to the sufficiently rapid discrediting of the Council as an organising and consolidating force.
3. I consider that the OCC not only has the right, but an obligation to aspire to become a subject of negotiations with the Kremlin on the cardinal reforming of Russia.  If the Council does not achieve this, that means its mission is not going to be fulfilled.  Compromise – the sole alternative to force.
4. Whatever one’s attitude toward Vladimir Putin – and it would be hard to count me among the admirers of this politician – to ignore the fact of his being in power when speaking of the transformation of Russia would be, to put it mildly, absent-minded
5. The slogans of mass actions must be simple, brief, and succinct.  They can not resemble the theses of a doctoral dissertation.
6. There is no doubt that an honest independent judiciary, is the foundation of foundations of a democratic Russia.  But nevertheless:  reform of the judicial system, as it seems to me, is too complex and multi-faceted a problem to be bringing it out to a  Mass Action.  Except for, perhaps, the topic of jurors, in the general context of people-power.
7. It is very important today not to allow the organisational disintegration of the Council.  Those who are more wise can concede more than others, but guarantee the preservation of the OCC as a single whole.  Which, like the mass peaceful protest movement, has a future.

I know the search for resolvable and worthy tasks is most complex.  And one still needs to achieve general agreement as well!  Doubly complex.  But you have gathered together some very intelligent heads indeed, after all.  So show it!

Thank you.

With wishes for big successes,

Mikhail Khodorkovsky