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Khodorkovsky intends to stay out of politics
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Russia’s former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said yesterday after walking free from a decade in prison he would stay away from his homeland but help free political prisoners still behind bars in the country.
In an astonishing turn of events, the Kremlin critic surfaced in Germany hours after his release on Friday from a prison in an obscure corner of northern Russia, following a pardon by President Vladimir Putin.
Mobbed by reporters at his first news conference in Berlin since his release, Khodorkovsky admitted he had been given no choice over his final destination and thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for aiding his liberation.
Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia’s richest man, said he had no intention of becoming involved in Russian politics and could not return to the country so long as a court order for him to pay US$550 million in damages was still in place.
“A fight for power is not for me,” said Khodorkovsky, wearing a sharp business suit but almost shaven-headed, at the news conference at the Berlin Wall museum at the symbolic Cold War location of Checkpoint Charlie.
He said he would focus his energies on helping political prisoners walk out of Russian jails. “I will do everything so that there are none left, do everything I can.”
He added that Western governments should “remember I am not the last political prisoner in Russia.”
The former chief executive and founder of the Yukos oil giant said he had no plans to return to business but had enough means to live on.
He thanked Merkel for working on his release. He said that he had been granted a German visa for one year but had not decided on his future travel plans.
In his first media interview since his release, Khodorkovsky revealed he had made clear his intention to stay out of politics in his request for a pardon from Putin and would not seek the return of Yukos assets which were seized by the state and bought by state oil firm Rosneft.
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