Today, on the day of the 10^th anniversary of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest, the renowned International Literature Festival Berlin (ilb) is hosting worldwide readings dedicated to Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and all political prisoners in Russia.

Artists and intellectuals, schools, universities, radio stations, cultural institutions and human rights organisations are all taking part in these solidarity readings. Famous German actor Burghart Klaussner is joining the readings in Berlin, and a number of prominent guests will be taking part around the world – from the United States, Russia, France and many other countries.

The Berlin readings will be followed by a talk with Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Federal Justice Minister and Kerstin Holm, the former long-time Moscow correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The talk is moderated by Manfred Sapper, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Ost-europa. Details can be found HERE.

More than 80 authors, philosophers and actors have responded and offered their support to the Festival, including the Nobel Laureates in Literature Herta Müller, Elfriede Jelinek, John M. Coetzee and Mario Vargas Llosa.

Among the materials to be read are Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s final statement delivered to the court in the conclusion of the second trial in 2010, extracts of Khodorkovsky’s correspondence with Russian authors Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Boris Akunin, and a selection from Khodorkovsky’s Prison’s People stories.

Since 2006, the Berlin International Literature Festival has regularly initiated Worldwide Readings for political prisoners and dissidents, including murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Chinese author and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo.

The program can be seen HERE.