Mikhail Khodorkovsky Instagram. Who is Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky: biography, criminal prosecution. Personal life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a businessman, ex-owner of the Yukos company. In 2003 he became the richest citizen of the country. His assets were estimated at $15 billion. Two years later, he was charged with tax evasion and sentenced to 13 years in prison. And the Yukos company went bankrupt. In this article, we will find out who Khodorkovsky is and briefly describe his biography. So let's get started.

Childhood

1963 is the year when Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born. The family of the future oligarch lived modestly and even poorly. The boy's parents worked as simple engineers at the Caliber plant, which was engaged in the production of precision measuring equipment. Until 1971, the Khodorkovsky family lived in a communal apartment. Then they got their own apartment.

Studies

Since childhood, the boy was fond of chemistry and natural experiences. The parents decided to develop this talent in their son. They sent little Khodorkovsky to a school with an in-depth study of mathematics and chemistry. The boy studied very well. After graduating from school, Mikhail entered the University of Chemical Technology. He was considered the best student of the course. And this despite the fact that due to lack of funds he had to earn extra money. In 1986, the hero of this article received a red diploma as a process engineer.

Immediately after graduation, Mikhail Khodorkovsky organized the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth (NTTM). This was the first business project of a young man, on which he earned good money. In parallel with this activity, Mikhail received a second degree at the Plekhanov Institute. There he met Alexei Golubichev, who was a relative of a major official of the USSR State Bank. This predetermined the fate of Khodorkovsky.

Bank "Menatep"

Acquaintance with Golubichev helped Mikhail in organizing his own business. In 1989, Khodorkovsky opened the commercial bank Menatep, becoming the head of the board. And he also received a license from the State Bank, which allowed him to carry out monetary transactions of Rosvooruzhenie, the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Ministry.

New position

By 1992, many businessmen already knew who Khodorkovsky was. Having secured the acquired connections, Mikhail decided to expand the business and switched to the oil sector. Soon he was appointed to the post of chairman of the fuel and energy complex and the Industrial Investment Fund. Thanks to this position, Mikhail Borisovich received all the powers and rights of the Deputy Minister of Energy and Fuel. A few months later, the future tycoon took this post officially. To get this job, Khodorkovsky had to give up his position as head of the Menatep bank. But in fact the reins of government remained in his hands.

Change of strategy

At that time, Mikhail Borisovich seriously thought about the reorganization of the Menatep Bank. He decided to rethink his strategy. Now the bank focused exclusively on large clients, who not only carried out financial transactions, but also used organizational services in terms of resolving issues of a state nature. Over time, Menatep completely switched to the investment industry. Building materials, metallurgy, as well as the chemical and food industries became the main areas of activity.

Yukos

In 1995, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Soskovets received from Khodorkovsky an offer to exchange 10% of the shares of Menatep Bank for 45% of the shares of Yukos. At that time, this state-owned oil refinery was in crisis. Soon an auction was held, as a result of which the agreed percentage of shares passed into the possession of the Menatep bank. Then Mikhail found several investors and bought another 33% stake in Yukos. According to some sources, it cost him $300 million. Later, the hero of our story brought the size of his package to 90%.

Now everyone knows who Khodorkovsky is. Mikhail Borisovich became the full owner of Yukos. He immediately began to lead the company out of the crisis. But for the implementation of the task, the assets of Menatep were not enough. The oligarch attracted money from third-party banks and, within six years, brought Yukos out of the crisis. The company led the global energy market with a capital of approximately $40 million. And the hero of this article became one of the wealthiest people in the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky case

In October 2003, the oligarch was arrested at the Novosibirsk airport. Mikhail was charged with tax evasion and embezzlement of public funds. After that, the Yukos office was searched, and all accounts and shares of the company were arrested by the State Prosecutor's Office. Subsequently, the court confirmed the version of the investigation, according to which Khodorkovsky organized a criminal group in 1994. Its main activity was aimed at seizing by illegal means the shares of various companies at a reduced cost. Then the securities were sold at the market rate.

As a result of the court case, the Yukos company began to slowly “fall apart”. The export of oil was stopped, and all the assets of the enterprise went to pay off the debt to the state. Khodorkovsky was sentenced in May 2005. Mikhail was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The investigation into other Yukos managers continued.

Second case

Its first results appeared in 2006. A second criminal case was initiated against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev (head of the board of directors of Menatep). This time they were charged with stealing oil. The indictment consisted of 14 volumes. Khodorkovsky himself called it complete absurdity. After all, if he managed to steal all the oil, and this is about 350 million tons, then how could he pay taxes and salaries to employees, as well as develop new deposits?

The proceedings lasted four years. In 2010, Lebedev and Khodorkovsky were found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison on the combined charges. a little later deadline reduced by 12 months. The convicts were transferred to Segezha (Karelia). In Russia, a public discussion of this criminal case began. Some famous people condemned the former oil tycoon. Among them were Boris Nemtsov, Yuri Luzhkov, Boris Akunin and many others.

After release

In December 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned. The corresponding decree was personally signed by Vladimir Putin. As soon as the former head of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, left prison, he went to Berlin to speak at a press conference. There, the ex-businessman declared his unwillingness to engage in politics or sponsor the opposition of the Russian Federation. Mikhail Borisovich planned to engage exclusively in public activities aimed at the release of Russian political prisoners.

In 2014, after the coup d'état in Ukraine, he came to the Maidan and declared his readiness to become a peacemaker. He spoke to the people with harsh criticism of the Russian authorities. He called Ukrainian nationalists wonderful people who were able to defend their freedom.

In December 2015, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was announced in international wanted list and arrested in absentia. He has been charged with the murder of two or more persons. At the moment, the ex-businessman lives in Switzerland.

Personal life

Now you have an idea of ​​who Khodorkovsky is. It remains only to talk about his personal life. Michael was married twice. He met his first wife, Elena, while still studying at the institute. In 1985, the girl gave birth to Khodorkovsky's son Pavel, who in this moment lives in the USA. According to Michael himself, his first marriage was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, he still maintains friendly relations with his ex-wife.

In 1991, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose biography was presented above, married a second time. The chosen one of the oil tycoon was an employee of the Menatep bank named Inna. In his second marriage, Mikhail gained prosperity, understanding and love. Soon, Inna gave birth to Khodorkovsky's daughter Anastasia, and in 1999, twins - Ilya and Gleb (now they study and live in Switzerland).

Borisovich is an example of the unpredictability of life, it is full of ups and downs, dizzying successes and fatal failures. Today, the name of Khodorkovsky is surrounded by a mass of rumors, myths and conjectures, so how did his fate develop?

Childhood and family

Khodorkovsky (biography, parents, who at the beginning life path were the most common) was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow, in the family of engineers of the Caliber plant. His father was a chief technologist for a long time, his mother was an ordinary process engineer. The family did not have much wealth, his father was a homeless child in the past, a Jew by nationality, he worked conscientiously all his life. Mom had noble ancestors, but this was not a subject of discussion in the house. The biography of Khodorkovsky, whose family belonged to representatives of the technical intelligentsia in the best sense of the word, began very typically for the USSR. For the first four years of his life, Michael lived in communal apartment, then the family moved to a separate one.

Misha from childhood was distinguished by great seriousness, he was even nicknamed "director" in kindergarten, at school the nickname "theorist" was firmly entrenched in him. He studied well, demonstrated great abilities in mathematics and chemistry. He studied at a special school, studied chemistry, at home, together with his parents, solved problems in this subject and did various experiments. In addition to studying, Mikhail also practiced karate and sambo, read a lot.

Years of study

Misha Khodorkovsky, whose biography has been associated with chemistry since childhood, in 1980 enters the Chemical-Technological Institute. Mendeleev. It was not the most brilliant university, it was not difficult for a gifted young man to study there. At the same time he is doing community service: actively participates in the life of the Komsomol, leads the construction team. It was he who found work in Siberia, he himself conducted all negotiations with the directors of enterprises, and in the summer the students earned good money. His squad in the fourth year became the best in harvesting. In 1985, Khodorkovsky graduated from high school with honors and has the opportunity to choose the place of distribution. He wanted to work at a closed enterprise in Siberia, but it did not work out. There are several versions why the plans did not come true. They say that the nationality, recorded according to the father in Mikhail's passport, interfered, another version says that the choice of the graduate was influenced by the speech of the rector, who spoke about the futility of doing science at the present stage.

Later, Mikhail entered the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy as a financier (graduated in 1988).

First earnings

The working biography of Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich began in childhood. While studying at school, he swept the streets, cut bread in a bakery, worked as an assistant carpenter - this is how the boy managed to earn pocket money and reagents for. While studying at the institute, he also constantly worked as a carpenter in the Etalon building cooperative. He always had a desire to make money, and he found a way how to do it.

Youth work

After graduating from high school, the biography of Khodorkovsky, whose nationality was “Jewish” by his father, turned out a little differently than he dreamed of, due to the fact that he could not get into a secret institute engaged in defense development. Therefore, Mikhail worked for some time as a released deputy secretary of the Komsomol university, and then became deputy secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol. At this time, a wave of commercialization of everything begins, including public organizations They were given little economic freedom. Khodorkovsky, along with Sergei Monakhov, took advantage of this. It establishes the Youth Initiative Fund, which makes it possible to profit from youth activities. Later, on the basis of this fund, the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth grew up. The creation of such a center was dictated by the spirit of the times, Khodorkovsky sensitively listened to the surrounding events and was able to feel the expected profit in this enterprise. The point was not to support youth projects, but that such centers were allowed to engage in commercial activities for self-sufficiency. And Mikhail developed a stormy activity: he organized the import and sale of computers, the sale of alcohol, and created a workshop for the production of "boiled" jeans. All this brought considerable profits. But Khodorkovsky only scaled up, he managed to create a system for cashing out money from other organizations that could not make payments. At this time, he earns his first really big money. He became the "inventor" of many financial schemes, which were later used by numerous followers.

At this time, Khodorkovsky acquires large, useful connections that help him reach a new level.

MENATEP

In 1989, Khodorkovsky and his comrades created a commercial bank, and then an interbank association, abbreviated as MENATEP. He himself stands at the head of the enterprise, Nevzlin and Golubovich become deputies, Dubov manages subsidiary banks. The bank is one of the first in the country to receive a state license and starts selling foreign currency, and then issues its own shares, which are actively advertised on TV. Shareholders did not wait for the promised huge dividends. The bank served many large state structures, which created a gigantic turnover.

During the years of privatization, MENATEP was actively involved in buying up the country's property. By manipulating loans-for-shares auctions, the bank becomes the owner of a 90% stake in the country's second largest oil company, Yukos. From that moment on, Khodorkovsky is no longer interested in being a banker, he plunges into a new industry for himself.

Yukos

Khodorkovsky's biography takes a new turn, he is fond of other business. Oil opens up the widest opportunities for sales various projects. But before he had time to turn around, the year struck, which undermined the stability of Khodorkovsky's bank and "planted a stain" on Yukos, which did not want to pay dividends. Mikhail Borisovich quickly caught on, was able to level his business, although the bank had to be abandoned. After the default, he is engaged in the establishment of oil production and export, restructuring the company, increasing the transparency of income and expenses, which restores investor confidence. By 2003, Yukos shares had doubled in value. The company will also apply various methods"tax optimization" to increase business profitability. In 2003, Forbes estimated Khodorkovsky's fortune at $8 billion, calling him the richest Russian of the year.

Khodorkovsky twice makes attempts to create a single campaign for Yuksi (together with Abramovich's Sibneft). He devised a scheme that would allow him to insure his business and become the richest man in the world, but law enforcement intervened and dashed his hopes.

Political activity

Khodorkovsky's biography has always been associated not only with earnings, but also with the public and political sphere. In 1990-91, he and Nevzlin were advisers to Prime Minister Silaev, whom they had known since the times of the Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth. In 1993, Mikhail became chairman of the Investment Fund for the Promotion of TEP. In subsequent years, he is a member of many committees and councils of various levels, up to the government. Since 1999, most of the company's capital has been spent on creating an image and lobbying interests in the government. Khodorkovsky also does charity work - he supports a boarding school for orphans. He finances the election campaign of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko in the districts where large oil fields are located. In 2003, he sponsors four parties in the elections at once.

In 2002, Khodorkovsky created the Open Russia Foundation, whose board of directors included G. Kissinger. By 2004, there were more than 50 branches of the organization throughout the country, which was engaged in the modernization of education, provided the Internet to remote regions, and worked with young people. The Foundation helped Khodorkovsky popularize his business and his worldview.

Prosecutions and years of imprisonment

In 2003, Khodorkovsky's biography takes a sharp turn. In February, he clashes with Putin on the issue of the legitimacy of the sale of Rosneft, this was the last straw, the authorities ran out of patience. The government has long had a lot of questions about the activities of Yukos, he was reminded of the "tax optimization" and opened a criminal case, first against Lebedev, and then against Khodorkovsky. He did not want to leave the country, despite all the warnings of his friends, and stayed to support the arrested Lebedev, but on October 25, 2003 he was arrested on the way to Irkutsk.

In 2005, the court passed a verdict, Lebedev and Khodorkovsky received 8 years each, but they did not admit their guilt and insisted on the political bias of the court. While the investigation and trial were going on, a PR campaign was unfolding in the media, which accused Khodorkovsky of trying to carry out an oligarchic coup in the country. In the West and in opposition circles, on the contrary, they said that the case had political overtones. The ECHR recognized the accused as “prisoners of conscience”, although it did not confirm the obvious presence of a political component in the case. Yukos property was confiscated to pay off debts, but foreign assets could not be seized.

In 2006, a new oil theft case was initiated, in which Khodorkovsky received a term of 14 years, which he had to serve in

In prison, Khodorkovsky continued to fight for his rights, he published several articles and statements in the Western press, went on hunger strikes four times, and was sent to the isolation ward more than once for violating the prison regime. At this time, the public did not abandon attempts to defend Khodorkovsky - actions were held, letters and articles were written.

Liberation

Khodorkovsky's biography, the family in which the children became the main reason for seeking release, changed when he nevertheless filed a petition for pardon. In 2013, Putin said at a press conference that Khodorkovsky could be pardoned if he asked for it. The petition, in fact, was an admission of guilt, but since Mikhail's mother was very sick, he went for it. And on December 20, 2013, he was released, the lawyers hastily organized Khodorkovsky's departure to Berlin.

Life on the loose

Khodorkovsky's biography again takes a turn, after 10 years in prison, he settles in Switzerland, receives a residence permit. At first, the press bothers him a lot. After emigration, a new Mikhail Khodorkovsky appears. Biography, wife, private life now, according to him, will be the main thing for him, and he will live outside of politics. However, he fails to refrain from making political statements; after a few months he comments on the situation in Russia and criticizes the country's government. In March 2014, Khodorkovsky says he is ready to become a mediator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. In September 2014, he “restarts” Open Russia, experts regard this as the return of Mikhail Borisovich to politics. Khodorkovsky often acts as an expert on the political situation in Russia in Western media He participates in public events. His speech at a festival in Paris in 2014 that he was ready to become the president of Russia and do everything to create a civil society in the country was taken as a declaration of intent.

Personal life

Khodorkovsky's first marriage was concluded in his student days. The first wife Elena in 1985 gave birth to Michael's son Pavel. In 1991, Khodorkovsky marries a second time. His second wife, Inna, bore him three children: a daughter and two twin sons. In 2009, Mikhail becomes a grandfather. Mikhail Khodorkovsky defined his current priorities after his release: family, wife, children. Photos of the entire family are almost impossible to find, as he carefully guards his privacy. But he spent 10 years away from loved ones and is now trying to catch up.

Khodorkovsky, biography, family, photos of private life are of great interest to the media, and this is tiring. But nevertheless, he regularly gives interviews, appears at big events, his life goes on.

The biography of Khodorkovsky, in which his wife and children have become the largest part, is still in a calm stage. He is improving his life, arranging affairs, but more and more often in an interview it is let out that he has a desire to change Russia. This gives the authorities reason to think that he still has political ambitions. This is how many oppositionists explain the emergence of accusations of Khodorkovsky in the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, which they call "the third Yukos case."

Mikhail Borisovich says that he is not worried about the next announcement of him on the wanted list by the Russian authorities, he continues to comment on the events in the country. However, Khodorkovsky, a family for whom children are very important, does not make harsh political statements.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian businessman and ex-owner of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos. According to his fortune, in 2003 he was considered one of the richest and most powerful in financial plan citizens of the Russian Federation, his capital was estimated at $ 15 billion.

In 2005, he became a key figure in a high-profile criminal case against Yukos and was accused of fraud and tax evasion. As a result, the oil company was declared bankrupt, and its leader went to prison for 10 years and 10 months. Khodorkovsky's verdict had a resonant assessment in society - some consider him justly convicted, while others call him a "prisoner of conscience", prosecuted for political reasons. At the time of his release from prison, the amount in his account did not exceed $ 100 million.

Childhood and youth

Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich was born on June 20, 1963 in a capital working-class family. His parents Marina Filippovna and Boris Moiseevich were chemical engineers at the Kalibr plant, which produces precision measuring equipment.

According to Mikhail, his paternal relatives were Jews, but he himself felt Russian by nationality.

The family of the future oil tycoon lived poorly in a communal apartment until 1971, after which the parents received their own housing. From childhood, young Khodorkovsky was fond of experiments and chemistry, showing curiosity in this direction.

At the university, Khodorkovsky was considered the best student of the faculty, despite the fact that acute financial need forced him to earn extra money as a carpenter in his free time from studies. housing cooperative. In 1986, he graduated with honors from the university and received a diploma in process engineering.

In his youth, Mikhail, together with like-minded people, creates the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth, which became his initial business project, with the help of which he earned his first big money. In parallel with his activities at NTTM, the future oil tycoon studied at the Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, where he met a relative of officials in the State Bank of the USSR Alexei Golubovich, which determined the future fate of Khodorkovsky.

Bank "Menatep"

Thanks to his first "brainchild" and acquaintance with Golubovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky took a strong cell in the world of big business and in 1989 created the Menatep commercial bank for scientific and technological progress, becoming chairman of its board. Khodorkovsky's bank was one of the first to obtain a license from the State Bank of the USSR, which allowed it to carry out financial operations of the tax, the Ministry of Finance and Rosvooruzhenie.

In 1992, Khodorkovsky's professional biography took a different direction and began to lean towards the oil business. First, he is appointed to the post of chairman of the Investment Fund for Industry and Fuel and Energy Complex. The new position gave Mikhail Borisovich all the rights and powers of the Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy. After a few months of activity, he becomes a full-fledged deputy minister. To work on public service he had to formally vacate the position of head of the Menatep bank, but all the reins of government remained in his hands.

During this period, the oligarch decided to change the strategy of Menatep Bank. As a result, the financial organization began to focus exclusively on large clients who, with its help, carried out financial transactions and received services that required resolving issues in public authorities.

Over time, the activities of "Menatep" began to go more into the investment industry. The priority areas were industry and metallurgy, petrochemistry and building materials, as well as food and chemical industries.

Yukos

In 1995, Khodorkovsky approached First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Soskovets with a proposal to exchange 10% of Menatep's shares for 45% of the shares of Yukos, the state-owned oil refinery, which was in crisis, the first in terms of oil reserves.

After the auction, Menatep became the owner of a 45% stake in Yukos, and then Khodorkovsky's bank acquired another 33% stake in the oil company, for which, together with 5 partners, he paid $ 300 million.

Later, at a cash auction, Menatep again received an impressive amount of shares in the most tasty morsel of Russia's oil business and control of 90% of Yukos shares.

Having become the owner of Yukos, Khodorkovsky began to lead the bankrupt oil company out of the crisis, but Menatep's assets were not enough for this. It took the oligarch 6 years and investments from third-party banks to bring Yukos out of an acute crisis, as a result of which the oil refinery became the leader in the global energy market with a capital of over $40 million.

Difficulties in doing business did not prevent Mikhail Borisovich from becoming a co-founder of the charitable organization "Openrussia Foundation" in 2001, the board of founders of which also included Mikhail Piotrovsky, Jacob Rothschild, and former ambassador USA in the USSR Artur Hartman.

Later, on its basis, the All-Russian network socio-political movement "Open Russia" was created, which was persecuted in the Russian Federation. After Khodorkovsky was released from prison, the organization continued its work under his leadership.

The Yukos case

In October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who at that time became one of the richest people in Russia and the world, was arrested at the Novosibirsk airport and charged with embezzlement of public funds and tax evasion. After that, a search of the Yukos office was carried out, all shares and accounts of the company were arrested by the Russian prosecutor's office.

According to the investigation, later recognized by the court, the oil tycoon in 1994 created a criminal group, whose activities were aimed at illegally seizing the shares of various companies at a reduced price in order to resell them at market prices.

As a result, the largest oil company in Russia, Yukos, began to fall apart, as oil exports were stopped, and all the money from the company's assets went to pay off its debt to the state. As a result of the first criminal case in May 2005, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a term to be served in a penal colony. And the Yukos case against other managers of the company was investigated further.

In 2006, a second criminal case was initiated against Khodorkovsky and his business partner, the head of the board of directors of Menatep, on oil theft, the indictment of which consisted of 14 volumes.

Khodorkovsky called the crime incriminated to him an absurdity, because if he stole all the oil from Yukos, which is 350 million tons, then from what then were wages paid to employees, taxes paid to the state in the amount of $ 40 million and wells were drilled, new fields were developed .

In December 2010, the court found Khodorkosky and Lebedev guilty, sentenced to 14 years in prison on a cumulative basis, later the term was reduced.

The convicts were transferred to a penal colony in the Karelian city of Segezha, and in Russia a loud discussion of the criminal trial of Khodorkovsky unfolded, which was publicly condemned by a public figure, an opposition politician, a former mayor of Moscow, a member of the Commission on Human Rights under the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Lyudmila Alekseeva and others, who believe that in the Yukos case the law was violated in a "malicious and arrogant manner." Also condemned Khodorkovsky's verdict and the West - the United States criticized Russian laws, the independence of the courts, tax policy in Russia and the inviolability of property.

As a sign of protest and non-recognition of the accusation, Khodorkovsky declared a hunger strike 4 times while serving his sentence. In addition, his stay in the colony was filled with various "adventures". After the first sentence in the Chita colony, he ended up in a punishment cell, because during the search, orders from the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on the rights of prisoners were confiscated from him, which, according to the administration, is prohibited by law.

In the same place, in Chita, the prisoner Khodorkovsky also became a “victim” of cellmate Alexander Kuchma, who cut the face of the oligarch shoe knife. According to Kuchma, unknown people pushed him to the crime, who literally “knocked out” actions against Mikhail from him. The prisoner said that he was also required to testify in front of the camera that he cut Khodorkovsky's face in the background of the latter's sexual harassment.

In December 2013, the President of Russia signed and released Khodorkovsky. The ex-head of Yukos was hastily released from the colony, even forgetting to issue a certificate of release, and transferred to the St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport, from where Mikhail flew to Berlin on a private plane provided by the ex-head of the German Foreign Ministry.

Upon his arrival in Berlin, Khodorkovsky spoke at a press conference and stated that after his release he did not intend to participate in politics, sponsor the Russian opposition, or engage in business. His key plan for the future was public activities aimed at the release of political prisoners in Russia.

Within a few years, the opinion of the former oil tycoon changed radically - before the presidential elections, he activated his activities, which experts assessed as a desire to break through to the top of power. Khodorkovsky himself declares that he is ready to become president of the Russian Federation in order to carry out a constitutional reform in Russia and redistribute presidential power in favor of society, parliament and the court.

Also on the Ukrainian Maidan in 2014, after the coup, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said he was ready to become a peacemaker in the Ukrainian situation. Then, speaking on stage in front of the Ukrainian people, he openly criticized the Russian authorities, and called the Ukrainian nationalists brave people who honestly defended their freedom.

While still in prison, Mikhail Borisovich began his literary activity. His work was analytical in nature. In the mid-2000s, the books “Crisis of Liberalism”, “Left Turn”, “Introduction to the Future. The World in 2020".

Later, Articles were published. Dialogues. Interview: Author's collection "and" Prison and freedom ". But the most popular was the entrepreneur's book "Prison People", which the author dedicated to his cellmates. Khodorkovsky called human life the only currency that exists in prison. In the dungeons, it is customary to go to the end in every situation, regardless of cowardice, even if you have to part with your life.

What Mikhail himself lacked was communication with friends, relatives, children and the opportunity to look beyond the horizon. The first thing after his release, the businessman went to the sea, jumped with a parachute and crawled along the rock. According to Mikhail Borisovich, the feeling of adrenaline in the blood brought him back to life.

Repeatedly in his interviews, Khodorkovsky touched on the topic of his relationship with the Russian president. In one of his last conversations with journalists, Mikhail Borisovich spoke about Vladimir Putin as a politician who does not have a strategy for leaving the post of head of state. According to the businessman, the long term of the president's rule suggests that in society there is a stereotype of attitude towards Russians as a people who cannot live without strong hand. Khodorkovsky called this form of attitude towards the people "a form of racism."

On a personal YouTube channel, as well as on social networks

Family

Born into a family of engineers. Boris Moiseevich Khodorkovsky, retired, was a homeless child as a child; worked as deputy chief technologist of the plant "Caliber" mother Marina Filippovna worked as an engineer at the same plant.

First marriage - Elena Dobrovolskaya. According to Khodorkovsky, his first student marriage was unsuccessful, but he maintained a good relationship with his ex-wife.

Son Pavel(born in 1985), lives in the USA. In December 2009, Pavel's daughter Diana was born.

Second marriage (since 1991) - Inna Valentinovna Khodorkovskaya(born in 1969), an employee, at that time, of the bank "MENATEP".

Daughter - Anastasia(born April 26, 1991) and two twins: Ilya and Gleb(born April 17, 1999). As of 2013, they live and study in Switzerland.

Biography

In 1970 he went to school, graduated from it in 1980.

In 1981 he entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology (MKhTI) named after D.I. Mendeleev, who graduated in 1986 with a diploma in the specialty "engineer-technologist".

In parallel with his studies at the institute, he worked until November 1985 as a carpenter in the ZhSK (Housing and Construction Cooperative) "Etalon". 1986 was elected a member of the Sverdlovsk district committee Komsomol.

In 1986-1987 he was deputy secretary of the Frunzensky district committee of the Komsomol (secretary - Sergei Monakhov). He was a member of the CPSU.

In 1987, together with Sergei Monakhov and Platon Lebedev organized under the Frunze District Committee of the Komsomol the Center for Intersectoral Scientific and Technical Programs (TsMNTP) - the Youth Initiative Fund, which functioned in the system of centers NTTM ("scientific and technical creativity of youth") under the Komsomol and under the auspices of the State Committee for Science and Technology. He was appointed director of the TsMNTP at the Frunze District Committee and remained in this position until April 1989.

TsMNTP was engaged in the import and sale of computers, cooking jeans, alcoholic beverages(including counterfeit cognac) and other business, which at that time brought high profits. At the same time, the Center earned on the so-called cashing out.

In 1988, the total turnover of NTTM trade and intermediary operations amounted to 80 million rubles. Subsequently, Khodorkovsky said that it was then that he earned his first big money - 160,000 rubles, which he received for a special development from the Institute high temperatures Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

However, the Frankfurter Rundschau calls these transactions "doubtful transactions with money intended for settlements between state enterprises", which, along with the import of computers and counterfeit cognac, as well as currency tricks, became the basis of Khodorkovsky's wealth.

In 1988 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of National Economy (MINH) named after M.V. G.V. Plekhanov.

By the beginning of the 1990s, there were already more than 600 centers of scientific and technical creativity of youth in the USSR, and formally they were called upon to introduce new scientific and technical developments into production and disseminate scientific literature.

In 1989, the Frunze branch of the Zhilsotsbank of the USSR and NTTM established CIB NTP (Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific and Technological Progress).

In 1990, CIB NTP, having bought NTTM from the Moscow Council, was renamed the Interbank Association "MENATEP" (short for "Interbank Association of Scientific and Technical Progress" or "Intersectoral Scientific and Technical Programs"). Khodorkovsky became chairman of the board of Menatep, Nevzlin and Golubovich - deputy chairmen of the board, Dubov - head of the department of subsidiary banks and the financial group.

In 1990, Menatep was one of the first commercial banks in Russia to receive a license from the State Bank of the USSR.

"Menatep" carried out active transactions with currency, and also sold its shares to individuals, using television advertising for these purposes. The sale of shares brought "Menatep" 2.3 million rubles, but the people who bought the shares did not receive any decent dividends.

In the future, "Menatep"'s ties with the government expanded. Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin became advisers to Russian Prime Minister Ivan Silaev, and also established relations with the Minister of Fuel and Energy Vladimir Lopukhin. Thanks to this, Menatep received permission to serve the funds of the Ministry of Finance, the state tax service, and later the state company Rosvooruzhenie, which was engaged in the export of weapons.

In March 1992, through the efforts of Lopukhin, Khodorkovsky was appointed president of the Fund for the Promotion of Investments in the Fuel and Energy Complex with the rights of Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy. The Foundation has not implemented a single project. During his leadership of the fund, Khodorkovsky met V.S. Chernomyrdin, in December 1992, became the chairman of the Russian government.

In November 1992, he took part in the initiative group "Entrepreneurial Political Initiative" (PPI) Konstantin Zatulin.

In March 1993 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy Yuri Shafranik(one of the deputy ministers of fuel and energy at that time was Alexander Samusev, who later went to work at MENATEP).

In 1993, Khodorkovsky was also a financial adviser to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

In April 1993 Khodorkovsky, Alexander Smolensky(Bank "Capital"), Vladimir Gusinsky("MOST-bank") and Yuri Agapov("Kredobank") jointly established an open joint-stock company with the conditional name "Plastic cards of Russia" for issuing credit magnetic cards and for servicing settlements with foreign partners.

On March 30, 1995, he took part in a government meeting, where for the first time a proposal was made by a consortium of Russian banks for a loan to the government secured by federal blocks of shares in privatized enterprises.

In July 1995, Khodorkovsky sent a letter to First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets with a proposal to give state ownership of 10% of the shares of the bank "MENATEP" in exchange for 45% of the shares of the state oil company "NK" Yukos ", which was in crisis. This offer was not accepted.

From September 1995 to May 1996, Khodorkovsky was chairman of the board of directors of CJSC ROSPROM. "Rosprom" - the holding company of the bank MENATEP, which managed industrial enterprises jar.

November 9, 1995 joint press conference"YUKOS" and "MENATEP", at which it was announced that the bank would oversee, on behalf of the state, both the investment competition and the oil company's loans-for-shares auction.

November 26, 1995 President of Inkombank Igor Vinogradov, President of the bank "Russian credit" Anatoly Malkin and Chairman of the Board of "Alfa-Bank" made a statement "On the financial problems of privatization, the relationship of the bank" MENATEP "and some government agencies." The statement said that Inkombank, Rossiyskiy Kredit and Alfa-Bank were ready to form a consortium and compete with Menatep.

In March 1996, Khodorkovsky took part in a meeting of a group of bankers (Vladimir Gusinsky, Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Vinogradov, Alexander Smolensky, Khodorkovsky) with President Boris Yeltsin and Anatoly Chubais, which resulted in the creation of an analytical group at Yeltsin's election headquarters, headed by Chubais.

In April 1996, a team of managers of the Menatep Bank, headed by Khodorkovsky, entered the leadership of the Yukos Oil Company.

In May 1996, Khodorkovsky was appointed chairman of the board of CJSC ROSPROM.

On April 12, 1996, Khodorkovsky resigned as chairman of the board of Menatep Bank, retaining his post as chairman of the bank's board of directors.

On April 20, 1996, Khodorkovsky was appointed First Vice-President of JSC NK Yukos (President - S. Muravlenko). He had eight vice presidents for areas under his control (two other vice presidents had the same number of vice presidents under him). Khodorkovsky was in charge of oil refining, chemistry and petrochemistry, domestic sales and exports, investment policy, finance and work with securities.

On June 4, 1996, Khodorkovsky was elected chairman of the board of directors of OAO NK Yukos..

In July 1996, after the presidential elections, Khodorkovsky received an invitation to join the newly formed government, but did not accept it.

On July 25, 1996, he received gratitude for his active participation in organizing and conducting the election campaign of President Yeltsin.

In October 1996, he was included in the Banking Council under the Government of the Russian Federation.

In January 1998, Khodorkovsky became one of the initiators of the creation of the Yuksi LLC oil holding, which included the Yukos and Sibneft oil companies.

On June 5, 1998, Khodorkovsky, together with a number of leading Russian financial and industrial figures, signed the "Appeal of representatives of Russian business" about the economic situation in the Russian Federation (that is, the imminent default).

In September 1998, together with a number of leaders of leading oil companies, he signed (on behalf of Yukos-Moscow and the Eastern Oil Company) an appeal to the Government of the Russian Federation with a proposal for an anti-crisis program.

As a result of the default in August 1998, Bank Menatep actually went bankrupt.

On May 18, 1999, the Central Bank revoked the bank "MENATEP" license for the right to perform banking operations.

In October 1999, Khodorkovsky was relieved of his duties as a member of the board of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation. In October 1999, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy announced its intention to file a reputational lawsuit against Khodorkovsky. The reason was Khodorkovsky's interview with the Vedomosti newspaper on October 4, 1999, in which Khodorkovsky announced the intention of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy "to create a reserve fund of the ministry with an export quota of five million tons" in order to "give it to whoever needs it."

Since 2000 - President of NK Yukos.

Since October 2000 - Member of the Council for Entrepreneurship under the Government of the Russian Federation.

In November 2000, he was elected a member of the Bureau of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).

In March 2002, he was one of the initiators of a letter from 30 businessmen and deputies of the chambers of the Federal Assembly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which dissatisfaction was expressed with the refusal of the Pension Fund of Russia and representatives of the social block of the government to defiantly comply with the agreements reached in 2001 as part of a discussion between employers and FIU on pension reform.

On February 19, 2003, at a meeting between Putin and representatives of the RSPP, Khodorkovsky told the president that, according to Russian businessmen, about $30 billion was spent on corruption in 2002, which is 10-12% of the country's GDP.

This meeting also saw a public confrontation between the president and Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky hoped to find understanding on the part of the President regarding Rosneft's purchase of Severnaya Neft's assets, but ran into a harsh response like: "How did you privatize Yukos?"

According to "leaks" from the president's inner circle, Putin also did not like the fact that Khodorokovsky, the only one of the participants in the meeting, was wearing a sweater (and, accordingly, no tie).

On April 7, 2003, Khodorkovsky declared: "I give my political leanings to the SPS and Yabloko and am ready to direct my personal funds to finance them." He planned to induce democratic leaders to create in 2003-2004 a political bloc headed by Vladimir Ryzhkov based on Yabloko, the SPS and independent democrats.

On July 2, 2003, Platon Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors of MFO Menatep, was arrested in Moscow on charges of embezzlement in 1994 of a 20% stake in Apatit OJSC, previously owned by the state, in the amount of $283.142 million.

On July 4, 2003, Khodorkovsky was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office. to testify in this case, together with his former deputy Nevzlin. After leaving the Prosecutor General's Office, Khodorkovsky said that the investigation was not interested in issues related to the activities of the Yukos company.

On July 5, 2003, Khodorkovsky, speaking about the reasons for the actions of the Prosecutor General's Office against Yukos, stated: "My opinion is that we are dealing with a struggle for power that has begun between various wings in the inner circle of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. This is the beginning of a struggle for power, which will have to end after elections in March. It is clear today, at least to me, that Putin will win and get a second term. But who will make up the second tier of the team, this, of course, is the question today."

On July 9, 2003, the Prosecutor General's Office began checking the request of a deputy of the State Duma Mikhail Bugera, who claimed that Yukos underpaid taxes in 2002.

At the same time, at the Bureau of the RSPP, Khodorkovsky said that in no case should one "beg" the authorities to mitigate the fate of Lebedev and stop the prosecution of Yukos by the prosecutor's office, whose actions he called illegitimate and even "run over by bandits in uniform." The main thing is to show the president that security forces raids on large companies call into question the current credit and investment ratings of the country.

On October 25, 2003, Khodorkovsky was detained at the Tolmachevo airport in Novosibirsk, sent to Moscow on a special flight and placed in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center.

On the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office charged him under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code.

He was accused of stealing someone else's property by deception as part of an organized group on a large scale; malicious non-execution of a court decision that has entered into legal force by representatives commercial organization; infliction of property damage to owners by fraud, in the absence of signs of theft committed by an organized group on a large scale; tax evasion from an organization on an especially large scale by a group of persons by prior agreement, repeatedly; tax evasion by an individual or insurance premium to state off-budget funds committed on an especially large scale; forgery of official documents, committed repeatedly; embezzlement of another's property.

In 2004, he refused to finance the presidential campaign Irina Khakamada(“I respect and highly appreciate Irina Khakamada, but unlike my partner Leonid Nevzlin, I refused to finance her presidential campaign, because I saw in this campaign the disturbing outlines of untruth. him in the tragedy "Nord-Ost.").

A year later, in the summer of 2005, Vedomosti published a second article by Mikhail Khodorkovsky entitled "Left Turn", which was a continuation of the spring 2004 publication.

On January 12, 2005, Khodorkovsky confirmed the information that he had transferred the right to dispose of 60% of the shares of Group Menatep and its main asset - Yukos - to Leonid Nevzlin.

January 23, 2005 federal Service The bailiffs reported that all the funds of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in their personal accounts in Russian banks were seized by a court order to pay off debts.

The court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty:

• in double fraud - taking over 44% of the shares of OAO NIUIF in 1995 (Article 147 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) and returning a tax overpayment of 407 million rubles from the budget. in 1999-2000 (Article 159 Part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
• in malicious non-execution of a court decision - for non-return of NIUIF shares contrary to the decision of the Moscow arbitration in 1997 and for non-return of 20% of Apatit shares by decision of the same arbitration in 1998 (Article 315 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
• in the misappropriation of proceeds from the export of apatite concentrate in 1995-2002 (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
• in causing damage to other owners of Apatit by underestimating its profit by 6 billion rubles. (Article 165 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)
• in non-payment by Yukos traders registered in preferential taxation zones, by 17 billion rubles. in 1999-2000 (Article 198 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
• in tax evasion (Khodorkovsky - by 54.5 million rubles, Lebedev - by 7.27 million rubles) (Article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Khodorkovsky was also found guilty of misappropriation and embezzlement by transferring 2.648 billion rubles to the structures of Vladimir Gusinsky in 1999-2000. (Article 160 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations on charges of fraudulently taking a 20% stake in Apatit through an investment tender won by Volna CJSC in 1994.

On May 31, 2005, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to 9 years in prison each in a penal colony.

At the end of 2006, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were transferred from the colonies to a pre-trial detention center in connection with the investigation of a new criminal case against them. The businessmen were accused of legalizing 450 billion rubles and 7.5 billion dollars between 1998 and 2004. Both insist they are innocent.

On February 5, 2007, the Prosecutor General's Office brought new charges against Khodorkovsky for money laundering and embezzlement. Similar charges were brought against Lebedev on the same day. It was about $23-25 ​​billion. According to Schmidt's lawyer, Khodorkovsky said that he was ready to deny all the accusations, but he would testify only on the condition that the violations of his rights would stop, in particular, if he was transferred to Moscow: "The accusations it is impossible to call the word "absurd": too soft. The accusation is delusional simply because it is impossible for anyone, anywhere and ever to steal such an amount. This is more than the company's revenue, "said Schmidt.

In August 2007, the Swiss Federal Court satisfied the claims of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, as well as a number of companies associated with them, and unblocked their bank accounts in this country for a total of 200 million francs (more than $166 million). The court also ruled against further legal assistance to Russia in the Yukos case, as it considered the criminal prosecution of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev politically motivated. This is the first decision in the practice of a Swiss federal court to refuse legal assistance to a foreign state.

On October 15, 2007, ten days before the end of Khodorkovsky's eight-year term, he was reprimanded for not holding his hands behind his back as prison rules dictate when he returned from a walk. The reprimand deprived Khodorkovsky of his right to apply for parole.

On November 7, 2007, Khodorkovsky's letter was made public, in which he urged citizens to definitely come to the State Duma elections on December 2, 2007 and vote "for any of the small parties that do not cause contempt." According to Khodorkovsky, this will be a signal for everyone to the authorities: "I am not a slave and I am not a redneck."

On July 16, 2008, an application for parole was filed with the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita on behalf of Khodorkovsky's defense.

On August 21, 2008, the district court began to consider the petition. The judge denied Khodorkovsky parole, explaining his decision by the fact that he had an outstanding penalty, did not receive any incentives from the colony, and deviated from the work prescribed by the leadership of the correctional institution.

In September 2008, Khodorkovsky, through his lawyers, gave a written interview to The Moscow Times newspaper in which he supported the entry of Russian troops into South Ossetia and approved the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia ("It is clear that Saakashvili, relying on the support of the West, decided to start a risky military operation without US approval and overestimated the chances of getting support").

At the beginning of October 2008, the court extended Khodorkovsky's detention in the pre-trial detention center until February 2, 2009.

On October 8, 2008, Khodorkovsky was sent by the leadership of the Chita pre-trial detention center for 12 days to a punishment cell. The reason for the penalty was an interview he gave to writer Boris Akunin for Esquire magazine.

On February 24, 2009, lawyers visited Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, who were brought in for trial in their second criminal case of embezzlement and money laundering from Chita to Moscow.

On March 3, 2009, preliminary hearings in the case of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev began at the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow.

On March 31, 2009, the trial began. The defense of the defendants demanded that practically all former and current Russian officials of the first echelon who, in their opinion, were directly related to the commercial activities of the Yukos Oil Company, as well as the heads of security and law enforcement agencies who participated in the investigation of both criminal cases of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, be summoned to court.

Among the defense witnesses were Putin and Sechin, with whom Khodorkovsky, as he himself explained to the court, personally coordinated all his commercial projects, oil prices, fuel consumers and methods of its transportation.

According to the defenders, all the listed witnesses knew about the Yukos transactions, which the investigation called crimes, had the opportunity to stop them and should explain to the court why they did not do this. The defendants, in turn, added that the "witnesses for the defense" were not only aware of their activities, but also helped them in the sale of oil, which the investigation calls "stolen".

On April 7, 2009, the state prosecution proceeded to read out the indictment. The defendants were accused of stealing large volumes of oil from oil-producing subsidiaries of Yukos Oil Company Samaraneftegaz, Yuganskneftegaz and Tomskneft VNK in the amount of more than 892 billion rubles as part of an organized group in 1998-2003. and in the legalization of money received from the sale of stolen oil in excess of 487 billion rubles. and $7.5 billion.

All these crimes, according to investigators, were committed by an organized group, which, in addition to the defendants, included Leonid Nevzlin, Dmitry Gololobov, Vasily Aleksanyan, Mikhail Brudno, as well as Vasily Shakhnovsky. According to prosecutor Lakhtin, at the direction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Leonid Nevzlin was supposed to ensure the neutralization and counteraction of business competitors.

On May 21, 2009, it became known that the panel of judges of the European Court of Human Rights unanimously recognized Khodorkovsky's complaint against the Russian Federation about his unlawful detention and arrest in Novosibirsk in October 2003, as well as the subsequent decisions of the Basmanny and Moscow City Courts extending his imprisonment for the time of the investigation and examination of his case on the merits, that the appeals before the courts against the decisions to arrest and extend the detention "were examined with unacceptable delays", and that the applicant was detained in "degrading conditions". human dignity".

Majority of votes (against was the representative of Russia Anatoly Kovler) The European Court acknowledged the validity of the applicant Khodorkovsky's complaint in that part of it that his “criminal prosecution was politically motivated”.

June 15, 2009 Dmitry Dovgy(former head of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation) confirmed Aleksanyan's long-standing statement that the latter was offered a deal - freedom in exchange for testimony against Khodorkovsky. Dovgy himself at that time was in custody on charges of bribery.

On September 6, 2009, the German magazine Focus published an interview with Khodorkovsky in which he expressed confidence that the second trial would end with a life sentence for him ("They will try to keep me in prison until death").

In January 2010, Khodorkovsky and the writer were awarded the Znamya magazine prize for "Dialogues", published in the 10th issue of the magazine in 2009.

On December 30, 2010, the court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty under Articles 160 and 174 Part 1 in the second Yukos case and decided to sentence Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to 14 years in prison on a cumulative basis, taking into account the previously served term.

The verdict was publicly condemned by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Daniil Granin, Oleg Dorman, Alexander Arkhangelsky, Evgeny Yasin, Sergei Bogdanchikov, Leonid Polezhaev and many others.

On February 14, 2011, an interview with Natalya Vasilyeva, the press secretary of the Khamovnichesky Court, in which she claimed that the judge "consulted and listened to the opinion of the Moscow City Court" and the sentence was imposed on Danilkin against his will. The judge called this statement slander, and the Moscow City Court declared a provocation.

By a cassation ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Moscow City Court dated May 24, 2011, the sentence of the Khamovnichesky District Court against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev was changed and their sentence was reduced to 13 years in prison for each with serving a sentence in a penal colony.

On May 27, 2011, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev filed for Preobrazhensky district court Moscow petitions for parole, since the articles imputed to them provide for such an opportunity after serving half the term of imprisonment, and out of the appointed 13 years they served more than seven and a half. The court dismissed the motions.

In June 2011, Khodorkovsky was transferred to correctional colony No. 7 in the city of Segezha in Karelia and enrolled in a detachment that is engaged in work to ensure the life of the colony. Khodorkovsky told about his stay in the colony after his release:

"Where I was sitting, exemplary order reigned. They began to restore it, as they told me, a month before my appearance. The general came to personally choose for me workplace, over which a surveillance camera hung ... And when they transferred me, they transferred it.

On February 24, 2012, lawyers for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev filed a Supreme Court RF joint supervisory appeal against the verdict in their second case.

In May 2012, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation A.Voronov refused to satisfy the supervisory appeal, however, on July 24 it became known that the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Lebedev canceled Voronov's decision and initiated supervisory proceedings in the case.

On August 2, 2012, it became known that Khodorkovsky appealed to the business ombudsman of the Russian Federation with a request to conduct a public examination of the second criminal case. In the letter, he indicated that his sentence and the sentence against Platon Lebedev had become a "model" for a number of similar cases, in connection with which entrepreneurs working in Russia need to be aware of the risks they face.

Khodorkovsky asks Titov to determine his attitude to the justification of the second criminal case from a legal and economic standpoint, and to take the necessary and possible steps to cancel the sentence and release those convicted in this case.

In response, Titov suggested that Khodorkovsky officially, in accordance with the regulations, apply to the center of public procedures "Business Against Corruption". "The procedure for working at the Center involves your official application, legal audit and conclusion Public Council", Titov explained to Khodorkovsky.

On December 20, 2012, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court, having considered the case in a supervisory procedure, reduced the term of imprisonment for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev from 13 to 11 years.

This was motivated by the reclassification of the charge in connection with the liberalization of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In addition, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court excluded from the prosecution an indication of the legalization of funds in the amount of more than 2 billion rubles, considering it unnecessarily imputed.

Also, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the court terminated the criminal prosecution on one of the episodes of non-payment of taxes. In 2013, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, having considered a new supervisory appeal, reduced the term of imprisonment by another 2 months.

As a result, Lebedev should be released on May 2, 2014, Khodorkovsky on August 25, 2014.

On December 19, 2013, Vladimir Putin announced at his annual press conference that Khodorkovsky, according to his request, would soon be pardoned.

Putin explained Khodorkovsky's pardon with humanitarian considerations related to his mother's illness. The next morning the decree was signed and Khodorkovsky was released. In total, the businessman spent more than 10 years in prison, according to exact estimates of the press - 3709 days.

Khodorkovsky was released so hastily that he was not given a certificate of release, was not given time to change the prisoner's costume for civilian clothes. He left the colony in Segezha in a UFSIN service car, which proceeded to the UFSIN Reception House, and from there to Petrozavodsk Airport.

There, a Tu-134 letter plane was waiting for him, on which Khodorkovsky arrived at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, where he was released by an escort. From Pulkovo on a private Cessna plane provided by the former head of the German Foreign Ministry Hans-Dietrich Genscher flew to Berlin.

In a special statement by Khodorkovsky, distributed upon his arrival in Berlin, it was clarified that the question of his admission of guilt in the petition for pardon due to family circumstances, sent to Putin on November 12, was not raised.

The release of Khodorkovsky was welcomed by the authorities of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the European Union.

On the night of December 22, 2013, while in Berlin, Khodorkovsky gave his first television interview in freedom to journalists from the Dozhd channel and Mikhail Zygar.

At a big press conference in Berlin at the Berlin Wall Museum at the former Checkpoint Charlie on December 22, Khodorkovsky announced that after gaining his freedom he had no plans to go into business and politics, to sponsor the Russian opposition; he intends to concentrate on social activities, including the release of political prisoners in Russia.

In March 2014, Khodorkovsky settled in the Swiss community of Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen. In this place, he rented a villa overlooking Lake Zurich for 11.5 thousand francs a month. Obtained a residence permit in Switzerland.

On March 9, 2014, he spoke in Kyiv on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, where he criticized the Russian authorities, and called those whom Russian federal channels call "Ukrainian nationalists" "wonderful people who defended their freedom."

On September 20, 2014, Khodorkovsky announced the launch of the updated political project "Open Russia", which he was engaged in before he was imprisoned by court order.

Rumors (scandals)

On June 26, 1998, the mayor of Nefteyugansk was killed Vladimir Petukhov. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the perpetrators of the murder are former special forces, Evgeny Reshetnikov and Gennady Tsegelnik.

The organizer of the assassination attempt in 2007 was recognized by the court as the former head of the department of the internal security service of the Yukos company. Alexey Pichugin. Tsegelnik, Reshetnikov and Pichugin are currently in prison.

Another defendant, Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin, who is considered the customer in the Prosecutor General's Office, is currently abroad. It is inaccessible to Russian justice. The investigation failed to prove Khodorkovsky's involvement in the murder of the mayor. However, many media outlets directly accused Khodorkovsky of the murder.

Thus, according to a number of media reports, the mayor of Nefteyugansk was the first to openly oppose Yukos, demanding that the oligarchs return unpaid taxes to the city. For this, according to the investigators, he was persecuted.

June 28, 2005 in the newspaper "Izvestia" as an advertisement was published "letter of fifty"- "Appeal of cultural figures, scientists, members of the public in connection with the verdict passed on the former leaders of the Yukos Oil Company", expressing support for the guilty verdict. The authors of the letter expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that "the voices of those who doubt the fairness of the decisions made sounded with renewed vigor", and the discussion of the verdict, in their opinion, "has the character of discrediting the entire judicial system, the state and society and calls into question the foundations of law and order in the country ".

September 11, 2009, four years after the publication of the "Letter of Fifty", the famous figure skater Irina Rodnina stated that she did not put her signature under this letter and condemned the very form of such an appeal.

Another of the signatories Anastasia Volochkova, On February 2, 2011, in an interview with Radio Liberty, she explained her signature as a misunderstanding, as a result of which she was misled by United Russia about the content of the letter. Expressed regret about his signature under these letters Alexander Buynov: "I have a feeling that I got involved then. In any case, there are insane acts that I am ashamed of ... If the Radio Liberty interview is enough for my abdication, I am ready to say it now."

Columnist of the Information Agency "Rosbalt" Alla Yaroshinskaya connects the release of Khodorkovsky not with the possibility of a boycott by Western countries of the upcoming 2014 Olympics in Sochi, but with the likely exchange of Khodorkovsky for the release of two Russian intelligence officers imprisoned in Germany.

In April 2014, Mikhail Khodorkovsky opened a "congress of Russian and Ukrainian intelligentsia" in Kyiv., which has already been called the "Congress of the Fifth Column".

Opposition politicians, liberal journalists and writers gathered in Kyiv with the aim of "developing a road map" for reconciliation between Russia and Ukraine in two days of work. media faces.

In November 2014, Mikhail Khodorkovsky announced that he had agreed with a blogger to establish a "bonus for victims of the Russian judicial and law enforcement system."

In December 2014, when asked how much money he had left, Khodorkovsky said he has a fortune of more than $100 million, and the money is in Swiss banks. Moreover, Khodorkovsky admitted that in Russia his money is considered "stolen from the state."

However, in April 2015, it became known that the ex-head of Yukos and his close business partners own assets worth $2 billion, Forbes magazine reported.

It turns out that Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, Vladimir Dubov and Mikhail Brudno control six Guernsey trust funds that own the Quadrum Atlantic SPC fund.

In turn, this fund is managed by Quadrum Global, which owns large real estate in the United States. According to Forbes, Khodorkovsky and partners own US offices and nine hotels in New York, Chicago, Orlando and Miami Beach.

November 20, 2015 in Vienna November 20 in Vienna opera house"Siren" was the premiere of the opera "Khodorkovsky".

"The performance is based on the" royal drama "between Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Vladimir Putin and covers the time period from 1989 to 2013. The main part of the libretto was written back in 2013 before the sudden release former head Yukos from prison", - reported on the website of the ex-head of Yukos.

In January 2016, a scandal broke out in Runet around the photo, where the producer known for his pro-state position Joseph Prigogine and his wife is a singer Valeria were captured in company with the ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy.

Khodorkovsky himself, posting a picture on his Instagram, called this meeting "pleasant": "Pleasant chance meetings ... But there is no need to build conspiracy theories."

It turned out that at present the ex-head of Yukos is in London, where producer Prigozhin came on tour with his wife.

Criticism immediately erupted on the Web, both against Prigozhin and Valery from patriotic Runet users, and against Venediktov and Khodorkovsky from a liberal audience.

At the end of January 2016, it became known that Khodorkovsky will sponsor non-systemic opposition in the parliamentary elections in 2016.

In the list of candidates for deputies of the State Duma, who will be financial assistance ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the framework of the project " Open elections", the entire spectrum of opposition will be represented - from defenders of the rights of truckers to associates of Alexei Navalny.

In the forefront, an opposition activist, a figure in the Bolotnaya case, who fell under an amnesty, has already declared her desire to receive the support of the ex-head of Yukos.

In February 2016, Interpol put Mikhail Khodorkovsky on the wanted list. in the case of the murder of Nefteyugansk Mayor Vladimir Petukhov.

Khodorkovsky himself said that he was not worried about being put on the wanted list by Interpol. He is sure that Switzerland will not extradite him to Russia.

The official website of Khodorkovsky on the Internet khodorkovsky.ru considers this presentation in the Kremlin about corruption to be the reason for the arrest of our hero. So the banner “For what he was imprisoned” hangs right on the site, and if you click on it, a presentation about corruption will open. However, Khodorkovsky made the presentation at the end of February 2003, and he was imprisoned at the end of October. Six months passed. In these six months, a bunch of important events in the life of the Yukos company fit in.
Two weeks after the meeting in the Kremlin, Roman Abramovich suggested to Khodorkovsky that the Yukos company be merged with the Sibneft company. It was an extremely tempting deal, albeit a risky one. Experts say the two companies fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Raw materials extracted by Sibneft are more profitable to be processed at Yukos refineries, and vice versa. Khodorkovsky spoke about this deal to one of his employees: “You want to go to a restaurant with your girlfriend, but in a restaurant punks can get stuffed in the face. What to do? - Khodorkovsky withstood a pause. - Go with the girl to a restaurant. It must be assumed that Khodorkovsky simply did not come up with the proverb “to be afraid of Putin - do not go to the toilet,” invented by one of the Internet wits, when President Putin threatened on TV to “wet the terrorists in the toilet.”
It seems that Khodorkovsky was most interested in keeping the impending deal secret. And they managed to keep it a secret. In any case, the newspapers learned about the merger of the two companies the day before the official press conference on this matter. For journalists, the merger of Yukos and Sibneft was a surprise. I don't know if this was a surprise in the Kremlin.
- You conducted this transaction as a lawyer? - I ask Anton Drel.
- No, I just helped find some of the lawyers who were involved in preparing the deal. Khodorkovsky did not want to entrust this matter to Yukos lawyers, he was afraid of information leakage.
- Do you understand what he wanted to achieve with this deal?
Make a big company and sell? State? Foreigners?
- Khodorkovsky had a plan to create the first Russian transnational company, - says Anton Drel.
- He wanted to exchange a significant part of the shares of the united company for shares, for example, Exxon obil. The result would be a huge transnational company ExxonMobil-YUKOS-Sibneft, in which Khodorkovsky and Abramovich (that is, Russia) would have about 30%, the largest stake, for a Western company, consider the control. that such a big transnational contraption would have been owned by the Russians I don't know why Yukosovsky's PR never talked about it.
If what the lawyer Anton Drel says is true, then it is wrong to believe the TV presenter Leontiev and think that Khodorkovsky wanted to seize power in the country. Rather, it was about becoming independent from the Russian authorities.
Anton Drel says:
- He did not want to be involved in politics, except for politics every sneeze.
Irina Yasina says:
- I didn't want to be involved in politics. It's just that in a totalitarian country any public activity is considered political activities. For example, we wanted to engage in civic education in schools, because parents cannot teach their children to be free citizens, after all, they themselves have never been free citizens. But we were forbidden to teach freedom and citizenship in schools. This is considered politics. We were allowed only to buy computers for schools and install Internet lines to schools.
On June 17, Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin became Rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The Scientific Council elected Nevz-
lin as rector on the condition that Yukos invest serious money in the Humanities University. Now it seems to me that the efforts of Yukos shareholders in early 2003 can be summed up in some big picture: they are attacking corruption, they are taking the largest oil company out of state control, they are funding the opposition, they are educating a new generation of free citizens, they are developing a humanitarian science - they seem to have some kind of business plan for Russia. A little more, and Russia will get out of the personal control of President Putin, and will become a completely Western country. In a sense, this is indeed a conspiracy aimed at changing the social order. And it is foolish to think that the Kremlin did not notice such a conspiracy.
On June 19, 2003, Alexei Pichugin, head of the Yukos security service, was arrested. They took him as if he were the only one - a whole bandit formation. Pichugin's office was stormed by 27 commandos, although one could simply show a warrant and enter the door. They searched the office, confiscated the safe, Pichugin asked to call a lawyer for the search, but the lawyer was not called. The investigation and trial in Pichugin's case were closed. His lawyers only reported that during the investigation, in order to “talk” Pichugin, they injected him with psychotropic drugs and drove him crazy.
On July 2, Platon Lebedev was arrested.
“Plato has nothing to do with it at all,” lawyer Anton Drel tells me. “Plato has nothing to do with this whole case at all. He is a pure hostage.
And Khodorkovsky writes to me from prison:
“I believed that the rules of the game can be changed not at all once, but now. I believed in Kasyanov, Putin. It is probably difficult to understand and even more so to believe, but I am, in general, a straightforward person, I do what I say and say what I do, and purely psychologically expect this from others.

I understand everything, but subconsciously I still think that people cannot say one thing, but do the exact opposite. With my mind I understand the possibility of intrigue, and then again I believe and I can’t help myself. I was always corrected by Leonid (Nevzlin. - V.P.), but here he also blundered.
In general, I always really believed in what I was saying when I told the President (the spelling is preserved, Khodorkovsky writes the word “president” with a capital letter - V.P.), that it is possible and necessary to put an end to corruption, when I proposed and achieved acceptance anti-corruption law “On Pipe”, amendments to tax legislation, adoption of corporate ethics rules, it all works. What we did, no one canceled! Even international reporting is being introduced. It was just that other mechanisms were turned on - a "baseball bat". We dealt with the thieves, but ran into robbers. I could have foreseen - I could, when I realized it was too late, and I had to either kneel or go to jail. Maybe I got up if it weren’t for Plato, in any case, the temptation would have been strong, but he couldn’t quit (Plato. - V.P.).
It follows from Khodorkovsky's letter that if Platon Lebedev had not been arrested, then Khodorkovsky would not have gone to prison, but would have surrendered, although we do not know how people surrender in such cases and what kind of annexations and indemnities are in such cases.
- You probably didn’t even hear about Platon Lebedev until he was arrested? says Anton Drel.
And he's almost right. I heard about Platon Lebedev only once. For a year in 1998 or 1999, a story was told in a journalistic get-together about how a reporter from the newspaper Le Tan, Sylvan Besson, came to Moscow to investigate the story of Yukos money in Switzerland, went to talk about it with Platon Lebedev, and he was with Besson rude, said that Besson better not get involved in this matter, and even asked if Besson was afraid that tomorrow a car would run over him in the street. We laughed then that Besson did not even immediately understand that this was a threat. We then decided without discussion that, of course, Lebedev was a bandit, because all of them there, in big business, are bandits. However, Lebedev's threat was not carried out, Besson calmly published his investigation, and no car ran over him.
Irina, a former employee of Lebedev who emigrated to London after Lebedev's arrest, has a different idea of ​​the incident with Sylvan Besson. Remember, Irina appeared in our story in a glimpse four chapters ago? We are talking in a London hotel near Kensington Park. I arrived at this meeting ahead of time, walked through the park and from afar saw Irina enter the hotel. We had never met before, but I immediately thought that this beautiful young woman was Russian. She was the only one of all the passers-by who was not careless in her clothes. Previously in Europe, Russians stood out from the crowd by being too poorly dressed, now they stand out by being too well dressed. Irina says:
- Plato could not stand it when he was not understood for a long time. If I did not understand, I always asked for an explanation, and he never once raised his voice at me. And if a person did not understand, but pretended to understand, Plato began to scream terribly and swear terribly.
Irina remembers Platon Lebedev in a completely different way than Sylvan Besson remembers him. She says that working with Lebedev was a blessing.
- It was 1997 when I came to work for Platon. There was an oil crisis, there were loans taken to buy the Eastern Oil Company, but there was no money at all. We worked twelve hours a day. And when we were very late at work, Platon drove me home. It was very hard, really, believe me. And the server of the Yukos accounting department also crashed, you know how a hard drive in a computer can break. They also restored the bookkeeping. It was very hard, but there was a drive. It seemed that there was no such problem that we could not solve. Since February 1998, it has become clear about the default that it will definitely happen, but I was more concerned about meeting my direct official duties and did not think about macroeconomic problems. For some reason, we were all sure that when a default occurs, we will also solve this problem. There was a feeling that we are all good fellows.
Irina says that, while spending twelve hours together at work, Platon Lebedev's employees also rested together and planned to go on vacation together, although there were no holidays in 1997 and 1998.
But they went to Lebedev for barbecue. Ira talks about one of these trips almost as about the happiest day of her life. It seems to have been in the early spring of 1998. In any case, there was still snow. Five or six young financiers from Yukos were invited to Platon Lebedev's dacha, and Lebedev's secretary purposely called them all the day before, reading to each one what food for the party should bring with him from Moscow. She had a list personally endorsed by the head of MENATEP, millionaire Platon Lebedev: “Onion, red - 2 kg. Lavash fresh, hot - 10 pcs." Ira was the only one without a car, and therefore Lebedev came to meet her at the Krylatskoye metro station.
Was he driving himself? - I ask.
He has always been driving himself. When the Yukos executives began to travel around with drivers and guards, and the security service insisted on the need for guards, Platon said: “Go to hell ... guys. I love to steer. I have traveled and will continue to travel.” I don't even know if he had security at all. In any case, I know Nevzlin's security chief, and I know Dubov's security chief, but I have no idea who Platon's security chief is.
Ira tells how they were driving along the Rublevsky highway, Lebedev merrily cursed about traffic jams and at the same time explained to the girl (Ira was 24 years old) that he had the best Lincoln Navigator car in the world, and that this Lincoln had such a special device that allows the car to climb mountains at an angle of 45 degrees.
- He that - I ask - climbed on his "Lincoln" in the mountains?
- I don’t know, - Ira laughs. - In any case, he knew that he had such a “crap” in his car.
Then they stopped at the market in Zhukovka near the Tsarskaya Okhota restaurant, and Lebedev announced that he was proud of his acquaintance with his grandmother, who sells the best pickles and the best pickled mushrooms on the market. Then they chose the meat for the barbecue. Lebedev said: “You young people should not be allowed to choose meat, you don’t understand anything about meat.” And I got a whole mountain of shashlik.
Then they arrived at the dacha and immediately began to lay out snacks on a huge table: pickled red garlic, wild garlic, the famous pickled cucumbers and pickled mushrooms from a magical grandmother.
- Just don't think, - says Ira, - that it was some kind of feast during the plague. Of course, we had a crisis, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, but we really
We knew for sure that we could solve any problem.
- Were there servants? - I'm asking.
- What servant? All by themselves. Vodka appeared in misted bottles. The youth began to roar. Lebedev put on a jacket and said: "You young people should not be allowed near the barbecue." And went out to the yard to the barbecue. Five minutes later, the young people saw through the window that Lebedev was talking at the barbecue with Yukos co-owner Vladimir Dubov, who just came to visit like a neighbor.

They had a hostel right there, - Irina smiles. - They saw each other at work every day, and even lived in the same village. Horror. You go out in the morning, Khodorkovsky runs around. You come in the evening, Khodorkovsky is walking. You can go crazy.
The fun immediately subsided. For some reason, unlike Lebedev, young financiers revered Dubov as superiors and could not make a fuss in the presence of Dubov. "Let's watch the video, shall we?" someone suggested. A quarter of an hour later, when Lebedev and Dubov, each holding skewers with shish kebab like a fan in both hands, entered the house, the youth sat sedately on the sofa and watched the video.
In 1998, when the crisis happened and the bank went bankrupt, it was Platon Lebedev who was responsible for paying off all shareholders and depositors. And paid off. At the beginning of the 2000s, when it became clear that it was more profitable for Yukos to produce oil on a rotational basis than to feed polar cities, it was Platon Lebedev who figured out how to force workers to leave their homes: Yukos distributed its shares to everyone who agreed to move. The workers were given about 10%. Theoretically, when you sell so many shares so quickly, the capitalization of the company should fall. But the capitalization did not fall, on the contrary, the shares began to rise in price at the very time when they were distributed to the workers, and this is thanks to Platon Lebedev.
- Platon Leonidovich, - says Ira, - he's really a brilliant manager. He can organize people for anything. He can make people all work like hell. Or maybe make them relax and have fun like crazy. In a professional sense, Plato was then a god to me, and at work I felt reverent awe towards him. And on barbecue with him it was easy and fun.
“You know what, Volodya,” Lebedev said to Dubov, “you come in, or something, later, and that young people here lined up for your arrival and took it under the visor.”
“Yeah,” Dubov reluctantly put his kebabs on a dish. “I’ll go and bring you sliced ​​meats.”

As soon as Dubov left, it became fun again. After the barbecue, the men went to the bathhouse. After the bath they threw out into the street to play football. After football, Lebedev's son began to ride the guests on a snowboard, and Lebedev made sure that the boy must fill up each of the guests in a snowdrift.
“Aunt Ira, how old are you?” - the boy asked when it was Irina's turn to ride.
"Twenty-four." - "You are quite young. Can I just call you Ira and not on “you”, but on “you”? - "You can." - "Ira, I really like you, I won't knock you over in the snow."
At that very moment, seeing that everyone was already lying in a snowdrift and only Platon Lebedev remained unrolled, one of the young financiers (Chief Accountant of Yukos, by the way) fled and tried to throw Lebedev into the snow. But Lebedev dodged it and with some kind of wrestling trick (Ira says it was very beautiful) threw his chief accountant into the snow. While the accountant was flying, his glasses fell off, and Lebedev, having carried out his reception, stumbled a little and accidentally trampled on his glasses. “I have minus five,” the chief accountant laughed, wallowing in the snow, “now you will lead me by the hands and feed me all evening.”
I'm asking:
How long did this happy time last?
Ira says:
- Until 2001. By 2001, we cleared the company. From any dirt. From any gangster suckers. It has become almost a straight Western company, transparent and boring. Life got better, but the drive was gone. I left Plato, we did not communicate for several years. And I regret it terribly. Of all of us, in my opinion, only Plato managed to keep the drive to the end, until the very arrest.
Lawyer Anton Drel says that the first time Platon Lebedev received a call from the prosecutor's office in January 2003. The call was completely peaceful. The investigator apologized for the concern, assured that there were no and could not be any claims against Lebedev personally, but that the prosecutor's office was simply investigating the case of LogoVAZ, which belonged to Boris Berezovsky. In the 1990s, Bank MENATEP, headed by Lebedev, gave something like LogoVAZ a loan, so wouldn't Platon Leonidovich agree to tell you something about that loan?
- Can we come and talk to you? - asked the investigator.
- Well, come, - answered Lebedev. - True, I don’t remember about the loan to LogoVAZ. Maybe they did. To whom only we did not give loans then. Come, I'll tell you what I remember.
I hung up the phone, called the lawyer Anton Drel, asked him to come and be present at this friendly conversation with the investigator. The conversation was indeed quite friendly. Drill says that the investigator asked all sorts of nonsense. Like, does Platon Leonidovich remember who came from Berezovsky to ask for a loan? Does not remember. Does Platon Leonidovich know Berezovsky personally? familiar. After asking questions for about forty minutes, the investigator said:
- Can I not draw up a protocol of interrogation now, but then I will draw it up at work and send it to you for you to sign?
- You can, - said Lebedev.
That was the end of the matter. For five months, the prosecutor's office did not send any protocol for signing. Lebedev had already forgotten about him. But in mid-June (around the same time that Pichugin was arrested, apparently, the Yukos case was being promoted simultaneously from different directions), the investigator suddenly called again:
- Platon Leonidovich, the protocol still needs to be signed. Only can you come to us and sign with us?
The next day, Lebedev and Drel went to the prosecutor's office, signed the protocol, and the investigator casually asked Lebedev to literally drop in on investigator Karimov for a minute.
It is now from prison that Platon Lebedev writes complaints to investigator Karimov, beginning the letter with the words: “To the head of an organized anti-constitutional criminal group Karimov” and signing “I have the honor of Platon Lebedev,” and then Lebedev had nothing against talking with Karimov. Karimov suddenly said:
- We have information that you are hiding the teller who issued the loan to LogoVAZ.
- Am I hiding? roared Lebedev, as usual, but restrained himself.
the prosecutor's office cannot find the girl-operator who is hiding from the investigation and does not appear for interrogations, I will help you find her.
By the way, I found it. A few days later, it turned out that the girl-operator who had issued a loan to LogoVAZ at MENATEP had long since quit MENATEP and now works at Sberbank.
- And what, - continued Karimov, - what was there with bills during the crisis?
- Does it have anything to do with the case? Anton Drel was wary.
- It has.
Anton Drel says that after these words, Platon Lebedev read a whole most interesting lecture to prosecutors about the crisis and finances, about how, why, and why bills appeared after the crisis. Anton says:
- I think he was arrested because of this lecture. The investigators thought that Lebedev was ready to talk and could explain to them a lot of things that they themselves do not understand.
They seem to think that if a person willingly undertakes to explain something to them, it means that he has spoken, he is injecting himself.
But Lebedev did not speak. He is just interested in talking about finance, he is a good financier.
From mid-June, Platon Lebedev began to be summoned from time to time to the prosecutor's office and interrogated as a witness. Not a single summons, that is, not a single document obliging a citizen to appear for interrogation, was issued. They called from the prosecutor's office, Lebedev came. Last time called at the end of June and asked to come on July 2 at 10.00. There was no notice. Lebedev agreed to come to the prosecutor's office on July 2 at 10:00, but he was not obliged to come.
And on July 1, on the eve of a visit to the prosecutor's office, Lebedev became ill with his heart. He was taken by ambulance to Vishnevsky's hospital, the nearest hospital to his home.
On June 2, at 10 am, lawyer Anton Drel came to the prosecutor's office to say that his client had fallen ill, that in a couple of days it would become clear whether the client would be discharged soon, and then you could call and agree when Lebedev would come for interrogation.
- The investigator yelled at me, - says Anton, - can you imagine? He yelled at me and poked me: “Where is your Lebedev? He spits on us, your Lebedev! You have plundered the country! Where are you hiding it? I tried to explain that I didn’t even know which hospital Lebedev had been taken to, that I would find out everything within a day and let you know when he was released. But the investigator did not listen. I simply wrote out a summons to Lebedev for tomorrow, June 3rd. This was the first order. I hoped to talk to Plato and persuade him to appear on this agenda.
On the evening of the same day, that is, on June 2, Platon Lebedev was arrested in the hospital ward, on the grounds that he, they say, was hiding from the investigation.
It was later at the trial that Platon Lebedev said that more than twelve hours remained before the interrogation time indicated on the agenda, and why the hell did the prosecutor's office invent that he did not appear for interrogations. It was later at the trial that Platon Lebedev said that it was stupid to think that he could run away, because two weeks before his arrest his daughter was born, and what kind of a normal man would run away from a two-week-old child? How do prosecutors imagine it? Or are there no normal men among prosecutors? This is later in court. And then, on the evening of June 2, Platon Lebedev was not able to say a word and did not even understand what they were saying to him.
Lawyer Anton Drel says that in the evening he arrived at the prosecutor's office, where they tried to interrogate the arrested Platon Lebedev. Lebedev was sitting on a chair, rocking softly and bellowing.
- He had high blood pressure, - says Anton Drel. - He only realized that there was no need to say anything at all. He was given some pills, but the pills didn't seem to help.
Anton says that either at the first interrogation, or at one of the subsequent interrogations, one young investigator tried to talk to Platon Lebedev:
- Platon Leonidovich, why are you offended? I understand that you are offended by Karimov, but we are Russians Orthodox people, let's talk.
On July 2, Platon Lebedev's former subordinate Irina had a birthday. She rented a room in the restaurant "Martel" on Chayanov Street and invited friends. Many of Irina's friends worked for Yukos. Among those invited was Khodorkovsky's assistant Tatiana Chuvaeva. So the holiday began a long time ago, but all the friends from Yukos, as if on cue, were late. Ira says that Tatyana Chuvaeva arrived closer to the night. Ira says she didn't have a face. She handed Ira flowers, a gift and said:
- Hey. Congratulations. Plato was arrested.
Silence reigned in the hall. Ira says that her world turned before her eyes. Having recovered a little, the guests began to drink silently and quickly. Ira says that after an hour and a half they drank all the alcohol in the restaurant, trying to get tipsy as soon as possible. And when they nevertheless got tipsy, a certain man named Maxim, a former colleague of Irin and Platon Lebedev, said:
- In vain they are so - did he mean the prosecutor's office, the authorities, the Kremlin, the president? - They will regret it. We did not solve such problems!
Ira claims that she answered then:
- No, Max, we have never solved such problems.
This time we will lose.
Ira says that she returned home and waited for a call. And a few days later, someone from Yukos called Ira (Ira does not say who) and asked to leave the country so that the prosecutor's office would not have a desire to interrogate Ira in the case of Platon Lebedev.
Ten days later, Ira left for London.
And on July 2, Khodorkovsky paced his office like a tiger in a cage, waiting for the time when someone from the government or the presidential administration would receive him late at night. He walked and said:
- I will never forgive myself that Plato was arrested.
People who know Mikhail Khodorkovsky intimately
they say that on the night after Lebedev's arrest, Khodorkovsky was received by Prime Minister Kasyanov. Kasyanov allegedly said that he had gone to see President Putin, and the president seemed to have ordered to pass on: “Let Khodorkovsky not worry. This is not a political order. Some of the oligarchs paid the prosecutor's office to attack Lebedev. The oligarchs are squabbling among themselves. They'll figure it out, they'll let you out."
There were several well-known journalists in Khodorkovsky's office that night, whose names I cannot name. And they didn't believe Khodorkovsky at the time, as if the president really could say that: "a political order", "paid the prosecutor's office." Some time later, these journalists met with Prime Minister Kasyanov, and he, off the record, of course, seemed to confirm that he really had such a conversation with the president, and it was really as if the president, as a matter of course, spoke about the possibility of a political order and the corruption of the prosecutor's office: “Let Khodorkovsky not worry. This is not a political order. Some of the oligarchs paid the prosecutor's office to attack Lebedev. The oligarchs are squabbling among themselves. They'll figure it out, they'll let you out."
In the very first days after Lebedev's arrest, people from Yukos talked to Roman Abramovich. They asked if Abramovich, using his connections in the Kremlin, could talk to the president and help free Lebedev. Abramovich seemed to have said that he would not talk to the president about Lebedev, he was afraid.
In our entire history, the only person who seems to have never been afraid is Platon Lebedev. He did not cooperate with the investigation. He wrote impudent letters to the prosecutor's office. He told state prosecutors in court when they tried to interrogate him: “I don’t want to talk to you, you are criminals, you falsified this case, you lied.” He also held out in prison. He was not given medication to the prison. He was transferred from the prison hospital to a general cell. They put him in a punishment cell. He continued to hold on.
On the second day after his arrest, lawyer Anton Drel received permission to visit his client Platon Lebedev in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. When the lawyer entered the visiting chamber, Lebedev first asked:
- Which of the guys still took?
He was quite sure that it was not just him who had been arrested, but all or almost all of the Yukos shareholders. In the end, he turned out to be right. From the very day of his arrest, Lebedev had no illusions that he could get out, make concessions, or, as Khodorkovsky writes, kneel down. From the very first day in prison, Lebedev was sure that not only he, but also his comrades would be ground to powder controlled by the prosecutor's office, the court, the law enforcement system. And the only thing, Platon Lebedev was sure, that remains is to adequately accept captivity and, perhaps, death.
In this sense, the words of Khodorkovsky, written to me from prison, “I could not leave Plato” express a tragic feeling - friendship.
It is known about Khodorkovsky that when he became rich, he always tried to get his school and college friends to work in MENA-TEP or in YUKOS. Khodorkovsky seems to have some atavistic notion of friendship from Soviet songs like "There were two friends in our regiment, sing a song, sing ...".
I re-read Khodorkovsky's letter and think that friendship, a concept not accepted in modern politics and modern business, explains a lot. Would you like to know why Khodorkovsky did not run away, but went to prison? He couldn't leave a friend. He considered it his duty to share the fate of a friend who intended to adequately accept captivity and, perhaps, death. How do you like this explanation?
I am writing these words on August 24, 2005. Either for the fact that Khodorkovsky writes too many articles for newspapers from prison, or simply for impudence and refusal to go for a walk, Platon Lebedev was placed in the punishment cell of the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. In terms of area, this punishment cell is approximately the same as Lebedev's beloved Lincoln. There, in the punishment cell, Platon Lebedev, a lover of pickled cucumbers, mushrooms and barbecue, is not given food or water.
And for the third day today, as a sign of solidarity with his friend, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is on a dry hunger strike in prison.
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