Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a well-known figure in contemporary Russia.

According to his official biography, he was born in 1963. He was half-Jewish, coming from an
ordinary family of engineers. He started to work for the Komsomol, but opened his first
business in 1986 under Mikhail Gorbachev's program of glasnost and perestroika.
During the Yeltsin era, due to the privatization, so-called shock therapy, there was an
appearance of the whole new social layer called Oligarchs. They were becoming rich mostly by
speculating with national resources, smuggled goods and corruption. Those people usually
succeeded from scratch, however they got intertwined with politics and economics to an
extraordinary extent, as an example, they played a significant role in financing the re-election of
Yeltsin in 1996.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky also became extremely rich during the 1990s, as other oligarchs. He
founded Bank Menatep, was making millions in currency trading and further acquired Yukos oil
company. As his fellows says, “he was the most residence if the Russian oligarchs”, he was
mostly investing money in his business, not spending them on the personal luxury needs, as
most of the others.
During the 1998 Russian financial crisis he has suffered some losses, and as he says in his
interviews, he got an understanding that “business is not just a game and capitalism can also
bring poorness and unhappiness”. His official website says, that as a pioneering philanthropist,
he established the Open Russia Foundation in 2001 with the aim of building and strengthening
civil society in Russia. He was trying to reform his companies, including Yukos, to get more
transparency and to eliminate corruption. Moreover, he opened internet cafes in the small
cities to get people the internet and improve communication. Khodorkovsky funded training
sessions for journalists and teachers, invested in non-governmental organizations (funding
around 50-80% of them) and supported the Russian State Humanities University, the best
liberal-arts school in Russia.
Being one of the richest persons the country he gained a powerful influence.
He was a great supporter of the democratic change in Russia, criticizing Putin’s method and
regime, especially corruption. Corruption is not a new thing in Russian history, it has been real
since Imperial times, was not fully eliminated during Soviet times, got a new rise in Yeltsin era
and remained and integrated into Putin’s regime.
One should notice here, that Putin just after coming to the power, removed almost all oligarchs
and replaced them with loyal people. Putin wanted to eliminate any opposition, he destroyed
any political opposition, banned any independent media. He has seen a great danger in
oligarchs, the reasons to them were simple – they got money, power, and they were hardly
controlled from Putin’s point of view.
So, early in 2003 Khodorkovsky publicly criticized corruption during the meeting with Putin.
Later this year he was arrested, suited and jailed on charges of tax evasion and fraud, charges
of Yukos company. The process was long, there were vague claims and evidence, however he
was sentences to 9 years of prison, prolonged after.
I believe, that his case could be related to the so-called show cases, which were firstly used in
1920s to exterminate the Bolshevik primary leadership. These cases very widely used during
the Stalin era to eliminate intellectuals and to strengthen respect for the regime. There could
many versions of what had really happened, but I consider Yukos as show case, for a several
reasons: I think that the real reason of his arrest was that Putin considered him, as a danger to
the existing regime and also the case was dealt extremely harshly, basically showing other
oligarchs what could happen with them if they follow Khodorkovsky example. He was accused
for 9 years (extended to 14) of prison for the crime, he did not commit.
Right after his release he has left the country and has been living in London ever since.
He has relaunched Open Russia in 2014, opened a few new projects and still providing support
for the opposition movements in Russia.
I believe that Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos case are important highlights of the modern
Russian History. After Khodorkovsky got in prison, it became clear that Russia is still far the
democratic society and that the real freedom is not going to happen in the nearest future. It
was a moment, when the hopes crumbled, and Putin’s regime revealed his real face.
References:
https://www.khodorkovsky.com, biography
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/opinion/russias-oligarchy-alive-and-well.html?_r=0,
“Russia’s Oligarchy, Alive and Well” by Andrew S. Weiss
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/04/vladimir-putin-mikhail-khodorkovsky-
russia, “THE WRATH OF PUTIN” by MASHA GESSEN

lectures of the course by Peter Kenez