Newsletter March 2012
Khodorkovsky says pushing Putin into second-round vote would promote political renewal in Russia
A week before the first round of the Russian presidential elections, Mikhail Khodorkovsky declared that forcing Vladimir Putin into a second round would push the country towards a path of positive change. Writing an op-ed syndicated in the International Herald Tribune, Guardian, Wprost, Focus and Le Monde, Khodorkovsky also called on western countries to “recognize that the only way to secure our mutual interests in the long term is for governments to stop hiding behind the stability myth, helping legitimize a regime deceiving its own people – the people who cannot tolerate it anymore. Nobody expects this to happen overnight,” he wrote, “but next Sunday’s vote holds out the chance to end the would-be president’s monopoly of power. We should not be afraid,” he concluded.
Former Yukos Manager tells of brutal jail regime
On February 27th, the Financial Times published an exclusive interview with Vladimir Pereverzin, the first former senior Yukos manager to be released from prison. Pereverzin served seven years and two months since his arrest in 2004. Speaking to Catherine Belton, Pereverzin, who had never even met Khodorkovsky or Platon Lebedev before being put on trial, recalled that prosecutors repeatedly called on him to testify against the two in their separate proceedings, in return for a lighter sentence. “When you cross through the gates of a prison colony you enter the 1930s. We have a country of legal mayhem, where official policies lead to lies and hypocrisy and arbitrary rules. You can’t consider that this is a civilized, modern country when these things go on just 100kms from Moscow,” he said.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev appeal second verdict with Supreme Court
On February 24th, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the verdict in their second case which extended their imprisonment to 2016. This appeal follows the May 2011 decision by the Moscow City Court to uphold the December 2010 guilty verdict. Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said: “the main question we raise is the absence of the ground for criminal liability”. This position was validated by an independent public inquiry into the case conducted in 2011 under the auspices of the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights. The Council came to the same conclusion as the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev defense: that the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is “penal fiction”. The defense submitted the text of the Council’s report on the case as an annex to their appeal. The Supreme Court must decide within one month whether to open supervisory proceedings.
Support from around the world
Earlier this month, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice released a video entitled “The Man Who Believed He Could Change Russia”. This compelling 20-minute mini-documentary is about Khodorkovsky and his persecution by the Russian authorities. The video features interviews with Katrina Lantos Swett, Pavel Khodorkovsky, Elie Wiesel, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Karinna Moskalenko and Arseny Roginsky. In line with its release, Katrina Lantos Swett, writing about Khodorkovsky for the Huffington Post, stated: “as the refreshing spring winds of reform blow across Red Square, there is renewed hope that this courageous man may one day breathe the air of freedom outside prison walls.”
On February 9th, Khodorkovsky’s son Pavel and mother Marina met with UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to discuss the Khodorkovsky case. After the meeting, Clegg said: “Marina Khodorkovskaya makes an eloquent case for her son and for political reform in Russia. Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s experience has revealed serious flaws in the judicial process and his campaign has rightly attracted international attention. We have serious concerns about the legal processes used to convict Mikhail Khodorkovsky.”
Also in the UK, on March 7th, Parliament will debate the use of targeted sanctions against Russia in line with the Magnitsky bill currently under consideration in the US. Dominic Raab, who tabled the motion, stated: “Parliament has an opportunity to target those in the Russian, Syrian and other rogue regimes who resort to torture or extra-judicial killing to silence the voices of freedom and democracy. Those responsible for appalling human rights abuses, as in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, should not be free to waltz down the King Road to do their Christmas shopping. By naming and targeting the specific individuals responsible for such crimes, Britain can support the efforts of dissidents and reformers.”
In France, Natalia Gevorkyan, an author, political analyst and commentator for Gazeta.ru, has published a new book on Khodorkovsky. “Prisonnier de Poutine”, or “Putin’s Prisoner”, details Khodorkovsky’s legal battles and the impact of his case on the rule of law, democracy and human rights in today’s Russia.
The critically acclaimed documentary “Khodorkovsky” by German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi has continued its successful run of screenings around the globe with shows this month in San Francisco and at Dublin’s International Film Festival. The documentary’s London premiere will be held on March 5th at the headquarters of the Guardian newspaper.
