Who is Mikhail Khodorkovsky? Who is Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky: biography, criminal prosecution

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. Born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow. Russian entrepreneur, public figure, publicist.

In 1997-2004 was a co-owner and head of the Yukos oil company. Arrested on charges of theft and tax evasion on October 25, 2003. At the time of his arrest he was one of richest people in the world, his fortune was estimated at $15 billion. In 2005, he was found guilty by a Russian court of fraud and other crimes. The Yukos company has undergone bankruptcy proceedings. In 2010-2011 he was sentenced due to new circumstances; Taking into account subsequent appeals, the total term imposed by the court was 10 years and 10 months.

The court's decision received a contradictory assessment from the Russian and international community: some consider Khodorkovsky to be justly convicted, others - a prisoner of conscience, persecuted for political reasons.

Amnesty International awarded Khodorkovsky and his colleague Platon Lebedev the status of “prisoners of conscience.” The European Court of Human Rights, in its decision made in May 2011, found procedural violations during the arrest, established facts of humiliation of human dignity during detention during the preliminary and judicial investigation, and consideration of complaints about detention. At the same time, the ECHR considered that irrefutable evidence of the political motivation of the authorities in the criminal prosecution of Khodorkovsky was not presented.

On November 12, 2013, Khodorkovsky, having spent more than 10 years in prison and not admitting his guilt, sent a petition to the President of the Russian Federation for a pardon due to family circumstances.

On December 10, 2013, information appeared in the press that the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was dealing with the new, third, case of Khodorkovsky.

On December 19, 2013, Vladimir Putin at the annual press conference at the WTC announced that Khodorkovsky, according to his request, would be pardoned in the near future. The next morning, December 20, Putin signed a decree of pardon, freeing him from serving his sentence. On the same day, Khodorkovsky was taken from the colony in Karelia to the St. Petersburg airport, and then by German plane to Berlin.

After his release, he settled with his family in Switzerland, where he received a residence permit. Several companies are registered in Geneva in Khodorkovsky's name. In 2014, he estimated his fortune at $100 million.

Having gained freedom, Khodorkovsky initially planned to concentrate on social and human rights activities and did not intend to engage in Russian politics. However, on September 20, 2014, from Paris, he announced his presidential ambitions for the first time - with the goal of carrying out constitutional reform in Russia.

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow in the family of Boris Moiseevich (born August 3, 1933) and Marina Filippovna (nee Petrova, September 13, 1934 - August 3, 2014) Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky's maternal great-grandfather was an entrepreneur who owned a factory that was taken away after the revolution. Both mother and father were chemical engineers who worked all their lives at the Moscow Kalibr plant, which produced precision measuring equipment. Until 1971, the family lived in a communal apartment, then separate housing appeared.

He graduated from school No. 277. In the early 90s, gymnasium No. 1503 was formed, to which a significant number of teachers transferred, including the class teacher M. B. Khodorkovsky. He was interested in chemistry and mathematics.

In 1981, Mikhail entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology named after D.I. Mendeleev.

In parallel with his studies at the institute, he worked as a carpenter at the Etalon housing construction cooperative in order to support himself. This did not prevent him from studying well - all the years he spent at the institute, he was the best student of the course. While studying at the institute, Mikhail married his classmate Elena. In 1985, their son Pavel was born. In 1986 he graduated with honors from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. D. Mendeleev (Moscow Chemical Technology Institute), having received a diploma in the specialty “technological engineer”.

For some time he worked as the released deputy secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Moscow Art Institute.

In 1987, when some forms of private entrepreneurship were allowed in the USSR with the beginning of perestroika, Khodorkovsky and his comrades used their Komsomol connections to create, on the basis of the Youth Initiative Fund, the Intersectoral Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth (NTTM) at the Frunzensky District Committee of the Komsomol under the auspices of the Komsomol Central Committee in within the framework of the development of scientific and technical creativity of young people. Thus, Khodorkovsky implemented another resolution of the Communist Party - on centers for scientific and technical creativity of youth.

At the early stage of the Center’s existence, support for Khodorkovsky was provided by Sergei Monakhov, the first secretary of the Frunzensky district committee of the Komsomol, and Igor Smykov, a member of the SMUiS MGK Komsomol. First Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Committee on Science and Technology Ivan Bortnik personally contributed to the allocation of significant sums from the state budget for the purchase by the Center of a large batch of IBM PC computers for the USSR State Committee on Science and Technology and the government of the country.

NTTM was engaged in the import and sale of computers, the welding of jeans, the sale alcoholic drinks(including fake cognac), etc. - a business that at that time brought high profits. At the same time, NTTM made money from the so-called cashing out of funds. At that time, research institutes, design bureaus, and factories, unlike NTTM centers, did not have the right to pay their own and invited employees actual earned money for third-party orders. To get around this limitation, enterprises passed their orders through NTTM centers, paying them commissions - at first 90%, but gradually, with the increase in the supply of these services, the commission amounts decreased. Khodorkovsky and his colleagues were among the first to engage in cashing, and already in 1988 the total turnover of trade and intermediary operations of NTTM 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 of High Temperatures of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

However, Frankfurter Rundschau calls these transactions “transactions of a dubious nature with money intended for settlements between state-owned enterprises,” which, along with the import of computers and counterfeit cognac, as well as currency tricks, became the basis of Khodorkovsky’s wealth.

By the beginning of the 1990s, there were already more than 600 centers for 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.

At the Institute of High Temperatures of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Khodorkovsky met Vladimir Dubov, whose relatives had connections in the highest echelons of power, right up to Mikhail Gorbachev.

In parallel with his activities at NTTM, Khodorkovsky continued his studies at the Institute of National Economy. G. V. Plekhanov. At this institute, Khodorkovsky met Alexei Golubovich, whose relatives held major positions in the State Bank of the USSR. In 1988 he graduated from the Institute of National Economy with a degree in financier.

Thanks to his acquaintance with Golubovich, NTTM got the opportunity to create a cooperative bank, which was done in 1989: the Frunze branch of the USSR Zhilsotsbank and NTTM established CIB NTP (Commercial Innovative Bank of Scientific and Technological Progress).

In 1990, CIB NTP, having purchased NTTM from the Moscow City Council, renamed itself the Interbank Association “MENATEP” (short for “Interbank Association of Scientific and Technical Progress” or “Interindustry Scientific and Technical Programs”). Khodorkovsky became the chairman of the board of Menatep, Nevzlin and Golubovich became deputy chairman of the board, Dubov became the 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 population who bought the shares did not receive any decent dividends.

Subsequently, Menatep’s connections with the authorities 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 service the funds of the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service, and later the state company Rosvooruzheniye, which was engaged in the export of arms.

Through the efforts of Lopukhin, in March 1992, Khodorkovsky was appointed president of the Fund for Promoting 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. While managing the foundation, Khodorkovsky met V.S. Chernomyrdin, who in December 1992 became chairman of the Russian government.

The collapse of the USSR and the rise to power of Boris Yeltsin sharply accelerated the transition of the Russian economy to a market economy. A large-scale privatization program was implemented, during which a significant share of Russian industry was concentrated in the hands of several financial and industrial groups (FIGs), the core of which were commercial banks, and the real owners were those who would later be called “oligarchs.”

"Menatep", like other commercial banks, took an active part in privatization - the bank's management identified the most profitable areas as the textile industry, food industry, construction, building materials industry, non-ferrous metallurgy (titanium and magnesium), mineral production fertilizers To manage the activities of the nascent industrial empire, a special organization was created - Rosprom, for which the best specialists from former industrial ministries and financial institutions were attracted.

In 1995, after the completion of “voucher” privatization, the Russian economy, however, remained in a depressing state. While businessmen close to government circles earned huge fortunes, delays in wages for employees of budgetary and corporatized enterprises reached monstrous proportions. The ongoing war in Chechnya required constant funding. Under these conditions, the country's leadership did not find a better way out than to apply for loans from the largest commercial banks. As collateral for loans, banks demanded that controlling stakes in enterprises be provided to them for external management, which the state intended to remain in its ownership and did not plan to put up for sale for vouchers - oil industry enterprises, shipping companies, giants of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. A condition was set - if the state is unable to repay the loans within a year, then these enterprises will be sold through so-called “shares-for-shares auctions”. The bankers initially decided on their priorities, dividing among themselves the properties that were put up for sale, and the scandals that those who could not get into the “circle of the chosen ones” tried to raise quickly faded away.

The state did not pay, and the stakes in the companies YUKOS, Norilsk Nickel, Sibneft, Surgutneftegaz, Lukoil, SIDANKO, Mechel, Nafta-Moscow, Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works, Murmansk and Novorossiysk maritime shipping companies, the Tuapse sea trade port and the North-Western Shipping Company passed into private hands. Menatep was just one of several banks involved in the loans-for-shares auction deal. As Paul Klebnikov, senior editor of Forbes magazine, wrote: “In the fall of 1995, his bank MENATEP received the right to participate in the auction for a 45% stake in the state-owned company YUKOS. After foreign investors (they had no right to participate - Vedomosti) and Russian bidders were disqualified, Khodorkovsky and his five partners became owners of 78% of the company’s shares, paying $309 million.”

The Izvestia newspaper described the process as follows: “The tidbit at the auction was YUKOS - the second largest oil company in Russia, and the first in terms of oil reserves. The first deputy chairman of the board of MENATEP, Konstantin Kagalovsky, said: “YUKOS will be ours." A consortium of Inkombank, Alfa-Bank and Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank also put forward their claims to YUKOS. The latter offered $350 million for YUKOS shares. But MENATEP was in charge of the registration of auction participants - the competitors' bid was not accepted was for formal reasons. As a result, 45 percent of YUKOS shares went to a shell company representing MENATEP for $159 million - only $9 million more than the starting price. Then MENATEP dealt with YUKOS like a python slowly stretching its body over sacrifice. To 45 percent of the shares, another 33 were added, received through investment auctions. Then an additional issue of shares followed, which further reduced the state's share in the company. By the fall of 1996, MENATEP owned 90 percent of the shares of YUKOS."

Economist, laureate Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz in 2003 called the Russian privatization of the 90s “illegitimate” and expressed fears about the possible leakage of money from Russia that Khodorkovsky could receive from the sale of property. To correct this situation, he proposed levying a 90% tax on “excess income”, as well as a tax on the export of capital from the country.

Having become the owner of YUKOS, Khodorkovsky became interested in the development of a new industrial business. Bank Menatep was taken over by a team of hired managers, who subsequently (after the default of 1998) created a new bank on the basis of its St. Petersburg branch - Menatep SPb, and even later separated the investment bank Trust from it and completely bought out the banking business from Khodorkovsky's team . The bank, however, maintained close ties with the Yukos company and largely existed due to its financial flows.

As a result of the 1998 default, Bank Menatep collapsed, unable to repay large loans in foreign currency, and lost my license. Menatep's main creditors at that time were three foreign banks - the South African Standard Bank, the Japanese Daiwa Bank and the German West LB Bank, which lent to it against the security of Yukos shares. Khodorkovsky, in order not to lose control over Yukos, announced his intention to carry out an additional issue of shares, as a result of which the block of shares pledged by creditors could depreciate. In this situation, the banks chose to take losses by ceding shares to Khodorkovsky. This undermined the reputation of Khodorkovsky, Menatep and Yukos in international financial circles for many years. Only in 2003 did Khodorkovsky decide to again contact Western banks with a request for a new loan.

As political scientist Alexander Tsipko wrote, “fabulous fortunes, including Khodorkovsky’s, arose not only in a poor country, but also as a result of the impoverishment of the overwhelming majority of the population. Khodorkovsky’s billion-dollar fortune coexists with the poverty of pensioners, with the poverty of twenty million Russians who found themselves in the 15th century and living off subsistence farming.”

After the 1998 default, Western businessmen were initially wary of doing business with Russia. Khodorkovsky was one of the first Russian oligarchs to realize that foreign investment was necessary to run a global business. As The Financial Times wrote, “By the start of the new century, many of Russia’s oligarchs realized that they needed to get rid of their negative reputation in the West and “position” themselves in a new way - as law-abiding businessmen.”

In the years following the default, Yukos began paying significant dividends. Revenue from sales of the Eastern Oil Company, whose oil production facilities supplied YUKOS with “well fluid” and where YUKOS owned 54% of the shares, decreased by 130 times over 4 years. In 1998, the revenue of OJSC VNK amounted to 3,404 million rubles, and in 2001 - 26 million rubles.

In September 1998, the reform of the company's management system began. Western consulting firms Arthur D. Little and McKinsey took part in developing the reform plan. As a result, the functions of the executive bodies were assigned to two specialized management companies, and the functions of the central office were assigned to the Yukos-Moscow corporate center. One of the management companies, YUKOS EP, managed all divisions of the company whose activities were related to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. The second, YUKOS RM, managed all enterprises involved in refining, marketing and transporting oil and petroleum products. Strategic planning for the company's development was transferred to the responsibility of YUKOS-Moscow. Non-core production facilities were separated into independent structures or transferred to third-party contractors. At the same time, a transition to external field maintenance was carried out. On the basis of service enterprises that were part of YUKOS, the Siberian Service Company was created. Structural changes were also made in the processing sector. An oils and additives plant was separated from the Novokuybyshevsk Refinery, and separate enterprises were formed to provide repairs and Maintenance fixed production assets, provision of transport and other related services.

In 2000, the results of the first stage of the Yukos company's transition to a single share appeared. During the conversion of shares of subsidiaries into securities of the holding, YUKOS consolidated more than 90% of the shares of Yuganskneftegaz and Samaraneftegaz, as well as about 50% of the shares of Tomskneft. In February 2000, the second stage of the reorganization began. The conversion of shares of four oil refineries was carried out - Kuibyshevsky, Novokuybyshevsky, Syzran and Achinsky. In all of these enterprises, YUKOS owned at least a controlling stake.

In 2001, the process of exchanging shares of subsidiaries for shares of YUKOS was completed. After the transition to a single share, the share of the parent company in the authorized capitals of OJSC Yuganskneftegaz, OJSC Samaraneftegaz, OJSC Tomskneft, JSC Kuibyshevsky Oil Refinery Plant, OJSC Novokuybyshevsky Oil Refinery Plant and OJSC Syzran Oil Refinery Plant increased significantly and approached 100%. . Yukos' participation in the capital of the Achinsk Refinery and sales divisions was slightly lower: from 75 to 98%.

The transition to a single share led to increased transparency of the company, and by 2003, Yukos shares had increased significantly in price.

In parallel with the business management reform, YUKOS management resorted to so-called tax optimization, taking advantage of numerous legal loopholes to reduce the volume of tax deductions - understating the tax base, selling oil through “fly-by-night” trading firms registered in regions with preferential taxation, the use of transfer pricing, sale of oil under the guise of “well fluid”, use of a “reverse offset” scheme, etc. Similar schemes in one or another combination were used by all Russian oil companies, but the option with “well fluid” was used only by YUKOS. According to Yulia Latynina, the idea of ​​selling so-called “fluid at the wellhead,” which was the main way to minimize local taxes, was “YUKOS’s best invention.” In fact, this method of minimizing taxes was “borrowed” from the United States.

In May 2005, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow found Khodorkovsky guilty of fraud, misappropriation of property, tax evasion and other crimes and sentenced him to 9 years in prison under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The Moscow City Court, by cassation ruling dated September 22, 2005, reduced the term to 8 years. As a result, the main oil-producing assets of the Yukos company became the property of the state oil company Rosneft, and the Yukos company itself was subject to bankruptcy proceedings.

As a result, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 9 years in prison in a general regime colony.

In December 2006, Khodorkovsky, together with Platon Lebedev, was transferred to the Chita pre-trial detention center, where he was charged with new charges in a new criminal case of oil theft. 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 with credit for previously served time.

In September 2011, the European Court of Human Rights found that the tax optimization schemes used by Yukos were never legal in Russia. Also, the ECHR found no evidence that such techniques were generally accepted in Russian business.

On December 10, 2013, information appeared in the press that the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was dealing with the new, third, case of Khodorkovsky. On December 19, at a press conference at the WTC, V. Putin said that he saw no prospects in the third Khodorkovsky case. The next day, a decree pardoning the businessman was signed.

On December 20, 2013, Vladimir Putin signed the Decree “On the pardon of M. B. Khodorkovsky.” He was released at night, so hastily that Khodorkovsky was not given a certificate of release, nor was he given time to change his prisoner’s suit to civilian clothes. He left the colony in Segezha in an official car of the Federal Penitentiary Service, which proceeded to the Reception House of the Federal Penitentiary Service, and from there to the Petrozavodsk airport. There, a standard Tu-134 plane was waiting for him, on which Khodorkovsky arrived at St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, where he was released by a convoy. From Pulkovo on a private Cessna plane provided by former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, he flew to Berlin.

On March 4, 2014, Khodorkovsky announced that he was ready to be a peacemaker in the situation in Ukraine. 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, from Paris, Khodorkovsky participated in an online forum on the relaunch of Open Russia. From his speech at this forum, observers concluded that Khodorkovsky intends to resume political activity with the aim of building a horizontal network structure. Khodorkovsky’s statements boiled down to the fact that the opposition “needs to organize itself before the 2016 State Duma elections,” since elections are a weak spot for the current Russian government. There, in Paris, at a festival dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Le Monde newspaper, Khodorkovsky said that he was ready to become president of Russia and take on the responsibility “to carry out constitutional reform, the main thing of which is the redistribution of presidential power in favor of the court, parliament and civil society »

Family of Mikhail Khodorkovsky:

First marriage - with Elena Dobrovolskaya; according to Khodorkovsky, his first student marriage was unsuccessful, but he still has a good relationship with his ex-wife. Son Pavel (b. 1985), lives in the USA. In December 2009, Pavel’s daughter Diana was born, and Mikhail Borisovich became a grandfather. “I am a son, husband, father and grandfather by correspondence. I don’t know how this helps my country, but the “system” is apparently calmer this way,” he said at the end of April 2010 in an interview with the French publication Metro.

Second marriage (since 1991) - Inna Valentinovna Khodorkovskaya (b. March 24, 1969), an employee, at that time, of the MENATEP bank. A daughter, Anastasia (b. April 26, 1991) and two twins: Ilya and Gleb (b. April 17, 1999), as of 2013 live and study in Switzerland.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian entrepreneur and ex-owner of the largest Russian oil company, Yukos. According to his net worth, in 2003 he was considered one of the richest and financially most powerful 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 involving 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 sentence had a resonant assessment in society - some consider him to be justly convicted, while others call him a “prisoner of conscience”, criminally persecuted for political reasons. At the time of his release from prison, the amount in his account did not exceed $100 million.

Childhood and youth

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

Mikhail Khodorkovsky - from a working-class family

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

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

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

In his youth, Mikhail, together with like-minded people, created 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 magnate studied at the Institute of National Economy named after. Plekhanov, where he met a relative of officials at the State Bank of the USSR, Alexei Golubovich, which determined the future fate of Khodorkovsky.

Bank "Menatep"

Thanks to his first “brainchild” and his acquaintance with Golubovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky occupied a strong position in the world of big business and in 1989 created commercial Bank scientific and technological progress of Menatep, becoming the chairman of its board. Khodorkovsky's Bank was one of the first to receive a license from the State Bank of the USSR, which allowed it to carry out financial transactions with the tax authorities, the Ministry of Finance and Rosvooruzhenie.

In 1992 professional biography Khodorkovsky acquired 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 in the civil service, he had to formally vacate his position as 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 with government authorities.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Bank Menatep

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

"YUKOS"

In 1995, Khodorkovsky turned to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Soskovets with a proposal to exchange 10% of the shares of Menatep for 45% of the shares of the state-owned oil refining company Yukos, which was in a crisis state and was in crisis.

After the auction, Menatep became the owner of 45% of the shares of YUKOS, and then Khodorkovsky’s bank acquired another 33% of the shares of the oil company, for which, together with 5 partners, it paid $300 million.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the Yukos company

Later, at a cash auction, Menatep again received an impressive number of shares in the most delicious piece of the Russian oil business and control over 90% of the shares of YUKOS.

Having become the owner of YUKOS, Khodorkovsky set about bringing 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 refining company became the leader of the global energy market with a capital of more than $40 million.

Difficulties in running a business did not prevent Mikhail Borisovich from becoming a co-founder in 2001 charitable organization"OpenRussia Foundation", the board of founders of which also included Mikhail Piotrovsky, Jacob Rothschild, and former US Ambassador to the USSR Arthur Hartman.

Later, on its basis, the all-Russian network socio-political movement “Open Russia” was created, which was persecuted on the territory of the Russian Federation. After Khodorkovsky was released from captivity, 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 theft of government funds and tax evasion. After this, a search was carried out at the Yukos office, and all shares and accounts of the company were seized by the Russian Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, which was later recognized by the court, the oil tycoon in 1994 created a criminal group whose activities were aimed at illegally acquiring shares of various companies at a reduced price with the aim of reselling them at market prices.

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

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

Khodorkovsky called the crime he was charged with absurd, because if he stole all of Yukos’s oil, which is 350 million tons, then why were wages paid to employees, taxes were paid to the state in the amount of $ 40 million and wells were drilled and new fields were developed .

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

The convicts were transported to a correctional colony in the Karelian city of Segezha, and in Russia there was a loud discussion of the criminal trial of Khodorkovsky, which was publicly condemned by public figure, opposition politician, former mayor of Moscow, member of the Human Rights Commission 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 brazen manner.” The West also condemned Khodorkovsky's sentence - 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 charges, Khodorkovsky went on 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 inspection, 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.

There, in Chita, prisoner Khodorkovsky also became a “victim” of cellmate Alexander Kuchma, who cut the oligarch’s face with a shoe knife. According to Kuchma, he was pushed to commit a crime by unknown people who literally “beat” him out of actions against Mikhail. The prisoner said that he was also required to testify in front of the camera that he cut up Khodorkovsky’s face against the backdrop of the latter’s sexual harassment.

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

Upon arrival in Berlin, Khodorkovsky spoke at a press conference and stated that after his release he no longer intended to participate in politics, sponsor the Russian opposition or engage in business. His key plan for the future was social activity, aimed at the release of political prisoners in Russia.

Over the course of several years, the opinion of the former oil tycoon changed radically - before the presidential elections, he intensified his activities, which experts assessed as a desire to make his way to the pinnacle of power. Khodorkovsky himself states that he is ready to become president of the Russian Federation in order to carry out 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 d’etat, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that 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 Ukrainian nationalists brave people who honestly defended their freedom.

While still in prison, Mikhail Borisovich began literary activity. His works were analytical in nature. In the mid-2000s, the books “The 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 give up your life.

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

Repeatedly in his interviews, Khodorkovsky touched upon the topic of attitude towards the President of Russia. 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 society has a stereotype of treating Russians as a people who cannot live without a strong hand. Khodorkovsky called this form of attitude towards the people “a form of racism.”

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]. Thus, non-cash money of organizations could be turned into cash of citizens, which was used by some employees of enterprises who collaborated with NTTM and sold their work twice, receiving two salaries - at the cash desk of their enterprise and at the youth creativity center, and the second could be 10 times more first The number of such centers in Moscow was equal to the number of districts, and all NTTM directors were appointed by district authorities on the recommendation of the Komsomol district committee. Khodorkovsky was appointed director of the Frunzensky NTTM, the post of head of the contract department was taken by the former programmer of the foreign trade association "Zarubezhgeologiya" Leonid Nevzlin, and the advertising department was headed by Vladislav Surkov.

Khodorkovsky received his first big money (167 thousand rubles) from the Institute of High Temperatures of the Academy of Sciences, having concluded a contract with the director of the institute, academician Alexander Sheindlin, (from IVTAN the contract was carried out by Vladimir Dubov,). NTTM received approximately the same amount from the State Committee for Science and Technology. Khodorkovsky's NTTM was engaged wide range scientific and technical programs: from the development and implementation of a device at a factory to practical research in the field of chemical technologies or the creation of software for a power plant. In addition, according to some information, Khodorkovsky was engaged in cashing out funds from enterprises for 10-15 percent of the total amount; a number of commercial contractual works began to pass through NTTM scientific institutions with defense industry enterprises. Among all NTTMs, the Khodorkovsky center became the largest, a regional and industry network was created. According to some reports, Khodorkovsky perceived the “youth” of NTTM as a deterrent, for example, due to constant questions about the percentage of young people in the team and about the youth nature of their programs.

At the end of 1987, on the basis of NTTM, Khodorkovsky created the state-cooperative association “Inter-industry scientific and technical programs”, or “MENATEP” , , , . Even before the law on cooperation, the Council of Ministers of the USSR allowed the creation of cooperatives in computer technology and programming: Khodorkovsky opened one of the first computer cooperatives in the country - “Nigma”, which purchased computer equipment, formed complexes, supplied them with programs and sold them to organizations.

When Khodorkovsky began to lack working capital, he applied for a loan from the Zhilsotsbank of the USSR, but he was refused, since this bank had the right to issue loans only to other banks. In December 1988, on the initiative of Khodorkovsky, the Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific and Technological Progress (CIB NTP) was created by MENATEP, a number of scientific and technical cooperatives, the Frunzensky district committee of the Komsomol and the Frunzensky branch of the USSR Zhilsotsbank. At the same time, only 2.7 million rubles were collected, and the remaining 2.3 million rubles for the bank’s authorized capital had to be paid within a year. Khodorkovsky was one of the first to use television advertising, began selling securities to the public and was able to attract necessary funds. The bank's management created an advisory council to discuss a number of scientific, technical and social issues, inviting several academicians, rectors educational institutions, newspaper and magazine leaders who shared their knowledge and political experience.

In May 1989, Khodorkovsky became chairman of the board of CIB NTP, leaving Monakhov as director of NTTP. The bank, which was created as an instrument for MENATEP to obtain loans, after about six months became the main commercial enterprise of the center. The bank received its first income from the difference in the interest rates at which enterprises placed their balances with it and the rates that it set for its commercial loans. The bank also financed various trading operations (for example, trading in computers) and was one of the first to engage in transactions with the purchase and sale of currency. In addition, a whole network of various “MENATEPs” appeared in Switzerland, Gibraltar, Hungary, and France, engaged in trade and financial transactions. Any of these organizations could become a profit center - depending on where taxation was lower. According to some reports, already at that time Khodorkovsky wanted to be the head of an autonomous production association with his own factory and research institute, he wanted to create a full cycle and not depend on anyone, but before privatization this was an unrealistic idea.

In May 1990, Khodorkovsky became the general director of the newly formed interbank association "MENATEP" (which included NTTP, KIB NTP and a number of scientific and technical cooperatives), also remaining chairman of the board of the bank KIB NTP. At the end of 1990, CIB NTP bought NTTP from the municipal authorities of Moscow (Mossovet headed by Yuri Luzhkov) and renamed it JSC MENATEP-Invest, which was headed by Monakhov. In December 1990, CIB NTP was re-registered as the Joint-Stock Commercial Bank of Scientific and Technical Progress "MENATEP", and then - JSC "Bank "MENATEP". The bank's management included Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin, Lebedev, Surkov, Monakhov and Dubov. By the beginning of 1991 During the year, MENATEP's turnover amounted to 4.5 billion rubles; from December 1990 to June 1991, shares were sold for a total amount of 1,458 million rubles.

In 1990-1991, Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin were advisers to Prime Minister Ivan Silaev. They met when Khodorkovsky headed one of the centers for scientific and technical creativity of youth, and Silaev was deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and was responsible for supporting this area. In the spring of 1992, Khodorkovsky was appointed chairman of the Investment Fund for the Promotion of the Fuel and Energy Industry with the rights of Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia Vladimir Lopukhin, a member of the government of Yegor Gaidar.

In June 1992, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Nevzlin published the book “The Man with the Ruble,” telling about their first steps in business, corporate rules and the relationship between business and government.

According to some reports, in October 1992, Khodorkovsky decided to change the strategy of MENATEP, which began to focus primarily on large clients, offering not only financial, but also organizational services (in particular, assistance in resolving certain issues in government bodies). In November 1992, Khodorkovsky signed the statement “Entrepreneurial Political Initiative - 92”, in which, on the one hand, the government was accused of a number of mistakes made, on the other hand, the absence of an alternative to Gaidar’s cabinet was recognized and it was proposed to begin consultations between representatives of business circles with the President of the Russian Federation, Supreme Council and the government on the eve of the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia,

In 1992, Khodorkovsky was included in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta rating list “They make Russia’s politics. 500 names” and the list of newsmakers of the Kommersant newspaper, and in the rating of the business magazine “Most” he took 12th place in the list of “50 richest Russians.” .

In March 1993, Khodorkovsky was appointed Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy Yuri Shafranik, and in 1993 he was also a financial adviser to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

In July 1993, Khodorkovsky was re-elected chairman of the board of the MENATEP bank. Since April 1993, the bank’s policy began to shift even more towards investment processes: priority areas were the chemical and food industries, the production of building materials, metallurgy and petrochemistry. MENATEP did not make investments of less than $1 million. MENATEP became an authorized bank of the state company Rosvooruzheniye, established in November 1993, and received an interest-free government loan of 1 trillion rubles. In 1994, Khodorkovsky became one of Oleg Soskovets' deputies on the Council for Industrial Policy and Privatization, as well as a member of a number of commissions headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister.

Since 1994, Khodorkovsky began financing the Podmoskovny lyceum boarding school in Korallovo for orphans, which was created by his parents Boris and Marina Khodorkovsky, , , .

In July 1995, Khodorkovsky sent a letter to First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets with a proposal to transfer 10 percent of the shares of MENATEP Bank into state ownership in exchange for 45 percent of the shares of the state oil producing company YUKOS (the second largest in Russia and the first in oil reserves) which was in a state of crisis. The proposal was rejected, and instead a scheme was adopted to sell the company at a loans-for-shares auction for real money. Previously, in accordance with the privatization plan, 7 percent of YUKOS shares were transferred to YUKOS itself and about 7 percent were distributed among the company's employees. In December 1995, a loans-for-shares auction was held for a 45 percent stake in YUKOS, combined with an investment competition for the sale of 33 percent of the company's shares. Only participants in the investment competition were allowed to participate in the loans-for-shares auction. The starting volume of the loan at the collateral auction was $150 million. An additional condition of the loans-for-shares auction was the winner's obligation to finance Yukos projects in the amount of $200 million. The winner of the investment competition was determined by the proposed volume of investment with a starting volume of $150 million and a fixed period for completing the investment program of three years (from 1996 to 1998 inclusive).

The main funds within the framework of Khodorkovsky's investment program were supposed to be used for the development of fields ($150 million), for the restoration of inactive well stock ($60 million), for the development of a petroleum products supply network ($50 million) and for the modernization of refineries ($44 million). According to some information, the registration of auction participants was in charge of MENATEP, and the application of competitors (a consortium of Inkombank, Alfa Bank and Russian Credit Bank) was not accepted for formal reasons.

The competition and auction were won by the company "Laguna" under the guarantee of the bank "MENATEP". Its bid at the investment competition amounted to $150.1 million, and at the loans-for-shares auction - $159 million. Laguna's total investment obligations thus amounted to $350.1 million. In addition, in December 1995, Strateg CJSC acquired, under the guarantee of MENATEP Bank, 23.5 percent of the shares of the Murmansk Shipping Company (in 1998 the shipping company was sold to Lukoil).

In the spring of 1996, Khodorkovsky acquired 7.06 percent of YUKOS shares through MENATEP at a cash auction. In the fall of 1996, YUKOS issued an additional issue of shares, the proceeds from the placement of which were used to pay off the budget debt of the holding and its subsidiaries. The state, as a shareholder of YUKOS, did not exercise the pre-emptive right to repurchase shares, and the state stake in the company (which was pledged at that time) lost weight - from 45 to 33.33 percent. "MENATEP" and the companies controlled by it bought out the due part of the additional issue, as well as the entire balance not distributed to shareholders. A few days after summing up the results of the placement of the additional issue, MENATEP put up a collateral block of YUKOS shares for an investment competition. The starting price was set at $160 million, and the investment volume was $200 million over two years. The winner of the investment competition was the Mont Blanc company, controlled by MENATEP, which offered $160.1 million for 33.33 percent of YUKOS shares. This investment competition was the last stage of the privatization of the Yukos oil company. According to its results, MENATEP gained control over more than 90 percent of the shares of the oil company.

From September 1995 to May 1996, Khodorkovsky served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZAO Rosprom - holding company Bank "MENATEP", which managed the industrial enterprises of the bank, .

In March 1996, Mikhail Khodorkovsky took part in a meeting of a group of bankers organized by Boris Berezovsky with President Boris Yeltsin and Anatoly Chubais (at that time chairman of the Civil Society Foundation), which resulted in the creation of an analytical group at Yeltsin's election headquarters, headed by Chubais. This group later became known as the “seven bankers”. A new election headquarters was created: instead of First Deputy Prime Minister Soskovets and the head of the Presidential Security Service Alexander Korzhakov, it was headed by Chubais, Viktor Chernomyrdin and Tatyana Dyachenko. In April 1996 it was published open letter Khodorkovsky and other major entrepreneurs, known as the “Statement of the Thirteen.” It spoke of a catastrophic split in society and the need to unite both the communists and the pro-Yeltsin forces to find a political compromise.

In April 1996, Khodorkovsky left the post of chairman of the board of the MENATEP bank and, with a team of managers who were not narrow banking specialists, entered the management of NK YUKOS. He was first appointed first vice president, responsible for oil refining, chemistry and petrochemicals, domestic sales and exports, investment policy, finance and securities, and in June 1996 he became chairman of the board of directors.

On July 25, 1996, Khodorkovsky received gratitude from Yeltsin, who confirmed his powers in the elections, for his active participation in organizing and conducting the election campaign. At the same time, Khodorkovsky received an invitation to join the newly formed government, but did not accept it. In October 1996, he was included in the Council on Banking Activities under the Government of the Russian Federation.

In February 1997, Khodorkovsky was appointed chairman of the joint board of the Rosprom-YUKOS management company. In 1997, he visited all the company’s main enterprises in Siberia and personally became familiar with the entire oil production cycle, working several shifts at each of the facilities in the technological chain (drilling, production, repairs, primary processing, commercial oil production).

In 1997, Forbes magazine estimated Mikhail Khodorkovsky's wealth at $2.3 billion (this estimate was denied by Khodorkovsky in the press as "implausible"), and in 1998 - at $1.3 billion.

In January 1998, Mikhail Khodorkovsky became one of the initiators of the creation of the oil holding LLC YUKSI, which was to include the oil companies YUKOS and Sibneft of Roman Abramovich. However, in May 1998, it was announced that the creation of the YUKSI holding was frozen. According to some reports, the merger did not take place due to Abramovich’s reluctance to exchange a controlling stake in Sibneft for political dividends from the merger of Russia’s two largest oil-producing enterprises.

On April 22, 1998, Khodorkovsky was re-elected as a member of the board of directors and chairman of the board of directors of MENATEP Bank. In August 1998, he became chairman of the board of LLC YUKOS-Moscow (the reorganized company Rosprom-YUKOS)

In June 1998, Khodorkovsky, together with a number of leading Russian financial and industrial figures, signed the “Appeal from Representatives of Russian Business” regarding the economic situation in the Russian Federation, announcing a serious economic crisis and the readiness of entrepreneurs to support reasonable, decisive and consistent government actions “to bring the country out of the economic stagnation." After the August default, in September 1998, Khodorkovsky, together with a number of leaders of leading oil companies, signed an appeal to the Russian government proposing an anti-crisis program. On November 12, 1998, Khodorkovsky was confirmed as a member of the board of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy.

At the end of 1998, information appeared in the press that MENATEP had failed to fulfill its investment obligations for YUKOS and was insisting on revising the terms of the competition retroactively. According to the legislation in force at that time, failure to comply with investment conditions could lead to the termination of the transaction and the annulment of the results of the competition after proceedings in the arbitration court. These rumors were categorically denied by the management of YUKOS, who provided some media with a certificate of the actual implementation of the investment program, broken down by two investment competitions in 1995 and 1996.

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 - the reason was an interview with a businessman in which he announced the Ministry of Fuel and Energy's intention 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.”

In the 1999 parliamentary elections, according to some information, Khodorkovsky provided financial assistance to the SPS, the Yabloko and Voice of Russia movements, as well as, which was carefully hidden, Unity and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In 1999, one of the largest shareholders of YUKOS, Dubov, became a deputy, having entered the State Duma on the Fatherland - All Russia party list. According to some information, in the new parliament, about a hundred deputies financed by YUKOS were ready to support Khodorkovsky’s initiatives.

In 2000, Khodorkovsky became president of the Yukos Oil Company, leaving the post of chairman of the board of Yukos-Moscow LLC.

In March 2000, Khodorkovsky’s article “The Last Start on Equal Rights” was published, in which he stated the need to develop network information technologies in Russia, about the coming fall of national governments around the world in half a century and the creation of a new global civilization.

On June 14, 2000, Khodorkovsky signed a letter of guarantee from 17 large Russian entrepreneurs with a request to change the preventive measure for businessman Vladimir Gusinsky, arrested on June 13, 2000. On June 16, 2000, Gusinsky was charged with committing fraud on an especially large scale, and on the same day he was released from custody, replacing the preventive measures with a written undertaking not to leave.

In October 2000, Khodorkovsky became a member of the Entrepreneurship Council 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 the fall of 2000, Khodorkovsky directed the general director of the specialized trading house YUKOS-M, Boris Zolotarev, who had worked for him since 1989, to run for the post of head of the administration of the Evenki Autonomous Okrug. At first, Khodorkovsky himself was considered the main contender for the post of governor of the district: even sociological surveys were conducted in which Evenki residents gave him preference over other candidates. But Khodorkovsky did not put forward his candidacy, according to experts, either due to a reluctance to engage in public politics, or for fear of losing the elections. Zolotarev won the election on April 8, 2001 in the first round of voting, receiving 51 percent of the popular vote. According to experts, the election campaign in Evenkia was, in fact, a struggle for administrative control over the territory with one of the most promising candidates in Russia oil fields.

The value of Yukos shares under Khodorkovsky rose from 60 cents in mid-2000 to $69.2 per share in December 2001: as a result, the company's capitalization increased from $350 million to $10.3 billion. Forbes magazine named Khodorkovsky the richest Russian, whose fortune was estimated at $2.4 billion in June 2001, and at $3.7 billion in February 2002.

At the end of 2001, Khodorkovsky and several other Yukos shareholders established the Open Russia Foundation. Within a few months, its branches were opened in 50 regions. Khodorkovsky became chairman of the board of this fund. According to some experts, the Open Russia Foundation was a prototype of Khodorkovsky's party, aimed at future generations of voters - teenagers from 12 to 18 years old.

In March 2002, Khodorkovsky was one of the initiators of a letter from thirty businessmen and deputies of both chambers of the Federal Assembly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they expressed dissatisfaction with the demonstrative refusal Pension Fund Russia and the federal ministers of the social block comply with the agreements reached in 2001 as part of the discussion between employers and the Pension Fund on pension reform.

In December 2001, information appeared about a conflict between Khodorkovsky and the president’s wife Lyudmila Putina over the Rus boarding house owned by YUKOS in the city of Sochi, Krasnodar Territory (former sanatorium of the CPSU Central Committee named after V.I. Lenin). During her trip to Sochi, Putina stayed at “Rus” and decided that the boarding house should be transferred to the administration of the Russian President. At her tacit request, an inspection was carried out: violations were identified during the privatization of “Rus” in the early 1990s, which made it possible to return the boarding house to state ownership through a judicial procedure. According to some reports, Khodorkovsky made every effort to keep the boarding house in the ownership of his company, but in August 2003 the boarding house became the property of the administration of the President of Russia: a federal state government was created on the basis of JSC Rus unitary enterprise"Rus sanatorium" .

In October 2002, by decision of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Khodorkovsky was appointed curator Murmansk region, and in December 2002 - a judicial arbitrator at the Ethics Commission of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, created to resolve corporate disputes.

In February 2003, Khodorkovsky, according to the Forbes rating, took 1st place in Russia and 26th in the world with a fortune of $8 billion. In April 2003, YUKOS turned 10 years old, of which for almost 7 years the company belonged to Khodorkovsky, financial results were summed up. After the reorganization of an unprofitable oil company by Khodorkovsky’s team, it became a record holder for the largest annual increase in oil production, along with the lowest costs in the industry, and managed to obtain the highest credit rating among Russian companies (according to Standard & Poors). YUKOS took 461st place in the list of the 500 largest companies in the world.

On February 19, 2003, Khodorkovsky, at a meeting between Putin and representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, expressed dissatisfaction with the not entirely “clean”, in his opinion, deal of Rosneft’s purchase of the Severnaya Neft company and told the president that, according to Russian entrepreneurs, corruption in 2002 About $30 billion was spent, which is 10-12 percent of the country's GDP. At this meeting, a public spat between the president and Khodorkovsky took place, ending with Putin asking about the privatization of YUKOS. Subsequently, Viktor Gerashchenko claimed that Khodorkovsky at the meeting asked Putin to give permission to build an oil pipeline from Southern Siberia to China, and after the president refused, he accused him of not understanding economics and not knowing how to build relations with China.

In 2003, Khodorkovsky participated in the financing of the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, tried to convince democratic leaders to create a political bloc in 2003-2004, led by Vladimir Ryzhkov, based on Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces and independent democrats. Khodorkovsky also supported a number of opposition figures from among the “civilized leftists”. According to some reports, in April 2003, during a personal meeting, Putin demanded that Yukos not finance the opposition. Khodorkovsky objected to this that Yabloko and SPS are financed from his personal money and the own funds of some YUKOS shareholders.

In 2003, the oil companies of Khodorkovsky and Abramovich tried to merge for the second time and form the joint venture YUKSI. In the same year, a share exchange deal was planned between the merged companies Yukos and Sibneft, and the American oil company Chevron-Texaco, as a result of which the latter would gain access to the development of Russian oil fields owned by Yukos and "Sibneft", and they would enter the international production and sales market. The merger and subsequent exchange of shares with an American company, according to experts, could not only finally turn Khodorkovsky into the richest man in the world, but also reliably protect his business. In October 2003, 92 percent of Sibneft shares were transferred to YUKOS: YUKOS received 57.5 percent of Sibneft shares in exchange for 17.2 percent of its shares during the placement of a new issue, another 8.8 percent of its shares the company exchanged for 14.5 percent of Sibneft shares, and Yukos bought the remaining 20 percent for $3 billion. To finally complete all the necessary procedures, it was still necessary to hold meetings of shareholders of the two companies, scheduled for the end of the year, but soon after the arrest of Khodorkovsky and the presentation of multi-billion-dollar tax claims against Yukos, the merger process was suspended at the initiative of Abramovich.

On July 4, 2003, Khodorkovsky was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office to testify in the case of his business partner Platon Lebedev, who was arrested on July 2 on charges of theft in 1994 of 20 percent of the shares of Apatit OJSC, previously state-owned. . . Khodorkovsky said that the actions of the Prosecutor General's Office are related to the struggle for power between various groups surrounded by Vladimir Putin, , , , . On July 9, 2003, the Prosecutor General's Office began checking the request of State Duma deputy Mikhail Bugera, who claimed that YUKOS did not pay additional taxes in 2002. On July 11, 2003, the prosecutor's office conducted a search in the YUKOS archive building. In August, Khodorkovsky said that he did not intend to run for the presidency, but planned to retire from business at 45 in 2008. In addition, Khodorkovsky refused to leave the country, deciding to stay in order to support the arrested Lebedev, despite proposals from his inner circle. Khodorkovsky rented a plane and went on a business trip throughout the country (Lipetsk, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Belgorod, Tambov, Saratov), ​​during which he gave lectures and gave performances.

On October 25, 2003, Khodorkovsky was arrested on the way to Irkutsk at the Novosibirsk airport, where his plane landed for refueling. He was charged with fraud and tax evasion. On November 3, 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky announced his decision to resign from his post as chairman of the board of NK YUKOS.

On May 31, 2005, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, as part of a joint case, were sentenced by the Meshchansky District Court to 9 years in prison each, the term was subsequently reduced to 8 years. They were found guilty under six articles of the Criminal Code, including fraud, theft of funds from the state, theft of valuable raw materials of apatite concentrate on a large scale, several failures to comply with decisions of arbitration courts, and evasion of taxes from individuals and legal entities. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev did not admit their guilt.

Trial over Khodorkovsky was accompanied by powerful information campaigns initiated, according to some experts, by government officials. Back in May 2003, the National Strategy Council published a report “An oligarchic coup is being prepared in Russia,” in which the oligarchs, including Khodorkovsky, were proclaimed the main enemies of Russia. In September 2004, when the prosecution witnesses who spoke at the trial began to testify in favor of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, a number of materials appeared in the media about the criminal connections of YUKOS, which was smuggling its Siberian oil in favor of Chechen militants. Thus, NTV showed the film “Terrorist Attack with Advance Payment,” after which representatives of the liberal public began to say that “the old NTV no longer exists at all.” When in March 2005, the former head of one of the departments of the YUKOS security service, Alexei Pichugin, was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security colony, the media focused on the fact that Pichugin received orders for murder from the top management of YUKOS: for example, NTV broadcast special film "Brigade from YUKOS" , , . In May-June 2006, Izvestia published a series of publications under the general title “Why Mikhail Khodorkovsky is imprisoned”, , , , , after which some readers declared the newspaper’s bias and a radical change in its guidelines, , .

According to some experts, over two years, the Khodorkovsky case acquired a political overtones, human rights organizations and liberal opposition parties held actions in support of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, and the pro-presidential youth movement “Nashi” - against, ,. Khodorkovsky himself turned into “prisoner number one”. He was even nominated by the initiative group as a candidate for State Duma deputy in University District No. 201 in the fall of 2005 during the parliamentary by-elections. Khodorkovsky, who was sitting in a pre-trial detention center, became a public figure, willingly giving interviews to journalists and writing open letters. The first was “The Crisis of Liberalism in Russia” in March 2004, which was regarded as a repentant letter from the oligarch, the second was “Prison and Peace: Property and Freedom” in December 2004, dedicated to a description of the destruction of YUKOS by the authorities.

On August 1, 2005, Khodorkovsky’s article “Left Turn” was published. It was regarded as a political program of a former oligarch declaring the inevitability of a return to leftist values, a system of social guarantees for the population, the need to change political elites, legitimize privatization and restore state paternalistic programs. According to Khodorkovsky, the political future belongs to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Rodina or their historical successors, as well as to the left liberal parties if they create a broad social democratic coalition.

At the end of August 2005, Khodorkovsky began a dry hunger strike, protesting against the transfer of Lebedev to a punishment cell on August 19, 2005. Later, the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service filed a lawsuit against the lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, the television company REN TV and journalist Marianna Maksimovskaya, demanding that Khodorkovsky’s statements about the hunger strike be refuted.

To serve his prison term, Khodorkovsky was sent in October 2005 to the remote colony YaG 14/10 in the city of Krasnokamensk, Chita region, while for security reasons the transfer itself was carried out by constantly changing regional convoys.

While already in prison, Khodorkovsky managed to publish his political statement as an advertisement in The Financial Times, in which he accused the Kremlin of being incapable of open and honest dialogue, and announced the necessary change of political elites.

On November 11, 2005, a new text by Khodorkovsky was published - “Left Turn - 2”. In this article, which developed the ideas of the previous one, Khodorkovsky described the future crisis of the country in 2008 and proposed an economic and political “Program 2020”, specifying the ideas of the “Left Turn” and giving amounts necessary costs, . The appearance of each article by Khodorkovsky aroused wide media interest, although doubts were expressed about the authorship - there was an opinion that the texts were written by Stanislav Belkovsky,.

The administration of the colony repeatedly punished Khodorkovsky and placed him in a punishment cell (punishment cell). In December 2005, Khodorkovsky was reprimanded for leaving his workplace while he was working in a sewing shop as an apprentice seamstress-machine operator. Khodorkovsky was first placed in a punishment cell on January 24, 2006 for 5 days for the Ministry of Justice orders concerning the rights of prisoners that were confiscated from him. The second time - on March 17, 2006, for 7 days for drinking tea in the company of prisoner Alexander Kuchma in the wrong place, ,. On June 3, 2006, the day after meeting with his wife, Khodorkovsky was again placed in a punishment cell for 10 days for violating paragraph 15 of the internal regulations of correctional institutions, which prohibits “selling, buying, giving, accepting as a gift, alienating in any other way for the benefit of others.” convicted persons or to appropriate food products, objects and substances for personal use."

On the night of April 14, 2006, Khodorkovsky was attacked - prisoner Kuchma cut his face with a shoe knife. Khodorkovsky received several stitches on his face. Kuchma was not prosecuted, and Khodorkovsky was transferred to solitary confinement on April 20, 2006, according to the official version, to ensure his safety. As a sign of protest, Khodorkovsky went on a dry hunger strike from April 27 to May 1, 2006, but was then placed in the colony’s medical unit. On May 5, 2006, Khodorkovsky was again placed in solitary confinement and only on May 13, 2006, he was transferred to a general barracks. In 2011, after his release, Kuchma told reporters that he “cut Khodorkovsky against his own will,” but refused to say who exactly forced him to attack his cellmate.

Each time, Khodorkovsky’s lawyers tried to protest the penalties of the colony administration, which could become an obstacle to the parole of their client. In April 2006, the Krasnokamensk court found Khodorkovsky’s imprisonment in a punishment cell for keeping orders from the Ministry of Justice unfounded, and in May 2006, the reprimand for him for leaving his workplace in December 2005. In January 2007, the district court of the Chita region declared Khodorkovsky's third imprisonment in a punishment cell illegal. In addition, lawyers tried to prove in court the incompetence of transferring Khodorkovsky to the Chita region, arguing that according to Russian laws the convicted person must serve his sentence at the place where the crime was committed or where he was convicted.

On March 16, 2006, Alexander Evstratov was replaced as head of the Krasnokamensk colony YaG 14/10 by Alexander Ryabko. According to some reports, the reason was that Evstratov apologized to Khodorkovsky’s defender Irina Khrunova, from whom the colony staff confiscated her lawyer’s license. On March 21, 2006, the former rector of the Spassky Church in the city of Krasnokamensk, Father Sergius (Sergei Taratukhin), was given a decree banning him from serving and depriving him of the right to wear priestly vestments and a cross: at first he called Khodorkovsky a political prisoner, then refused to consecrate an administrative building at the request of the camp authorities, and the ensuing transfer to a taiga village called his exile. On April 10, 2006, by decree of the Bishop of Chita and Transbaikal, Taratukhin was deprived of the priesthood.

In February 2006, Khodorkovsky turned to the head of the colony with a request to allow him to engage in scientific activities and to cancel work in the sewing workshop: according to some information, Khodorkovsky entered into a contract with the journal Chemistry and Life for the preparation of scientific articles. In March 2006 federal Service The Execution Service refused the prisoner’s request, citing the provisions of the law on the maintenance of convicts. In June 2006, information appeared that Khodorkovsky was enrolled as a freelance correspondent for the Resonance newspaper, an internal publication of the Federal Penitentiary Service. The work of a journalist can theoretically make it easier for a prisoner to be released on parole or give him the right to additional visits with relatives, but it is only a social burden and does not relieve Khodorkovsky from performing his main duties in the sewing workshop.

On December 22, 2006, it became known that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were transferred to Chita. According to Khodorkovsky's lawyer Natalya Terekhova, her client was transferred to the Chita pre-trial detention center on December 20. Lebedev's lawyer Evgeny Baru told reporters that he has no information about the whereabouts of his client. However, he did not rule out that new charges will be brought against Lebedev and Khodorkovsky - the Prosecutor General's Office sent a notification to the defense that on December 27, “investigative actions will be carried out” with Lebedev. “Investigative actions” with the participation of Khodorkovsky, according to the notification received by his lawyers, were scheduled for December 26.

According to some information, in December 2006, in the Chita pre-trial detention center, Khodorkovsky was informed that he was suspected of legalizing in 2002-2003 funds received from the sale of oil as a result of thefts from YUKOS enterprises - Tomskneft, Samaraneftegaz and Yuganskneftegaz. Similar claims were made against Lebedev. Lawyers for the prisoners suggested that their clients could face similar charges in connection with donations to the Open Russia Foundation. At the same time, they emphasized that there was no money laundering, since the funds were transferred to Open Russia without their subsequent cashing out - the so-called “kickback”.

On February 5, 2007, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: article 160 - theft by appropriation, article 174 - legalization (laundering) of funds or other property. Neither Khodorkovsky nor Lebedev admitted their guilt. According to Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yuri Schmidt, the accused are charged with the theft of 23-25 ​​billion dollars (that is, an amount exceeding the revenue of the Yukos company) through the oil companies Fargoil and Ratibor. Previously, in the case of YUKOS, Fargoil and Ratibor, the amount of $13 billion was mentioned, of which $8.5 billion was allegedly legalized.

The possible filing of new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev became known back in July 2005. Then the Prosecutor General's Office notified their lawyers of the need to appear in connection with the presentation of new charges against their clients, but no charges followed. The investigation of the Prosecutor General's Office against YUKOS, Fargoil and Ratibor became known in December 2004, when the first suspects were arrested - the deputy director of the directorate external debt NK "YUKOS" Vladimir Pereverzin and the head of "Ratibor" Vladimir Malakhovsky. In June 2005, a Spanish citizen was taken into custody in Russia - CEO Fargoil company Antonio Valdez-Garcia, who escaped from his guards in January 2007 shortly before his sentencing. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the defendants embezzled and legalized the proceeds of the oil companies Yuganskneftegaz, Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz by transferring them abroad. Thanks to a special scheme, oil was allegedly purchased from oil refining companies at cost (about $49 per ton), and then resold through offshore companies at a price of up to $150 per ton. The proceeds went to the companies Ratibor and Fargoil, were legalized through foreign offshore companies, and then transferred to the accounts of large shareholders of YUKOS in the form of remunerations or payments for services (according to investigators, fictitious).

On February 9, 2007, the Prosecutor General's Office specified its charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. They were charged with theft of shares of subsidiaries of the Eastern Oil Company OJSC in November 1998, which were later re-registered as a number of foreign offshore companies. In addition, according to investigators, in 1998-2004, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev participated in the theft of oil from Samaraneftegaz OJSC, Yuganskneftegaz OJSC and Tomskneft OJSC. They allegedly first bought oil from these enterprises at cost (under the guise of so-called “well fluid”), and then sold it through controlled companies at a price inflated by approximately 3-4 times. The total amount of stolen oil, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, amounted to more than 850 billion rubles, of which 450 billion rubles and 7.5 billion dollars were legalized - that is, the amount of legalized funds practically coincides with the previously mentioned 23-25 ​​billion dollars.

Lawyers and defendants in the case called the charges against them absurd. In July 2008, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation brought new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. It was noted that it was presented in a new formulation, according to which the businessmen were accused of “theft by appropriation” of almost 350 million tons of oil and “money laundering on an especially large scale” (laundering 487 billion rubles and 7.5 billion dollars). Meanwhile, Khodorkovsky’s defenders did not see any “novelty” in the charges brought against him and defined it as “a set of... unsubstantiated allegations about the alleged theft and legalization of all the oil produced over the 6 years of activity of the Yukos Oil Company.” That same month, former businessmen issued clarifications about the charges brought against them, calling them “deliberately false and slanderous.” According to Khodorkovsky, what the prosecution called “legalization” are “isolated examples large quantity ordinary transactions for the placement (temporary) of funds of the vertically integrated oil company "YUKOS" by the company's treasury on the Russian and international financial markets", .

That same month, Khodorkovsky's lawyers filed a request for his parole. In their comments on this matter, Khodorkovsky's defenders recalled the policy declared by President Dmitry Medvedev, elected to this post in 2008, to ensure real independence of the court. The petition was sent to the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita, which, after considering it, rejected the petition in August of the same year. At the same time it became known that the administration of the Chita pre-trial detention center, having given in general positive characterization Khodorkovsky, noted that he “did not take the path of correction because he did not repent of what he had done.”

In September 2008, in an interview with The Moscow Times, Khodorkovsky spoke out in support of Russia's actions during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, which was called the "five-day war" in the press. He stated that President Medvedev’s decision to send Russian troops into South Ossetia, and then to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, was the only possible one, and he had no other choice.

At the beginning of October 2008, the Russian version of Esquire magazine published an interview with Khodorkovsky taken from him by the writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, better known under the pseudonym Boris Akunin. Previously, Khodorkovsky admitted that during the time spent in prison he managed to read the complete works of Akunin. In this interview, Jodorowsky discussed issues of democratization Russian society, rejected calls to stop cooperating with the authorities and called the Communist Party of the Russian Federation a “normal social democratic party.” For talking with the writer, Khodorkovsky was sent to a punishment cell for 12 days. Subsequently, the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita, where Khodorkovsky’s lawyers filed a complaint, declared the placement of the former businessman in a punishment cell illegal and, by its decision, canceled the corresponding resolution of the management of the Chita pre-trial detention center.

After the election of Barack Obama as US President in November 2008, Khodorkovsky’s lawyers submitted their client’s article “New Socialism: Left Turn - 3. Global perestroika” to the Vedomosti newspaper. In it, he stated that the answer to the global crisis should be a worldwide turn to “neo-socialism”.

In January 2009, prisoners Kuchma filed a lawsuit against Khodorkovsky, in which he accused the former head of Yukos of sexual harassment and demanded half a million rubles as compensation for moral damages (according to other sources, the lawsuit appeared back in August, it was filed with the Ingodinsky district court of Chita, however, was not accepted there due to lack of jurisdiction, and later he was redirected to the Meshchansky Court of the capital). In the same month, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow, having rejected the request of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers for the personal participation of their client in the process, decided that to consider the claim “it will be sufficient written explanations defendant." In February 2009, shortly before the start date of the hearings in the case, Kommersant-Vlast published an interview with the former foreman of the sewing workshop of the Krasnokamensk colony. It put forward the version that Kuchma was "advised" to file a lawsuit so that Khodorkovsky could not count on parole, ,. In the same month, it became known that the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow recognized Kuchma’s claims as unfounded and refused to satisfy his claim against Khodorkovsky, , .

On February 19, 2009, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow decided to transfer Lebedev and Khodorkovsky to Moscow to consider the second criminal case. A few days later, the lawyers of the convicts expressed the opinion that they had already been delivered to the capital. The trial began on March 31 of the same year. During its course, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev repeatedly stated that they did not understand the essence of the charges brought against them, , , , , . During the hearings in the case, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were kept in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center.

In June 2009, Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky were filed a new lawsuit by the buyer of Yukos shares, Vladislav Chernyshev, who demanded damages in excess of 900 thousand rubles for the burned shares. It was this amount that the plaintiff estimated the material and moral damage he suffered caused to him by the unlawful actions of Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin.

That same month, Kommersant-Vlast magazine published an article by Khodorkovsky, in which he presented a large-scale plan for judicial reform in Russia. First of all, as the author of the article argued, the country needs an independent court, not subject to “neither “telephone law” nor the logic of corruption.” Judicial reform in Russia, according to the former oligarch, must precede political reform, otherwise it may turn into a fiction. According to Khodorkovsky, the judicial community needs to be given a number of important issues functioning and development of the judicial system, including the formation of half the composition of all three high courts. Also, among the measures to reform the country’s judicial system, Khodorkovsky proposed increasing the initial requirements for judges, restoring the principle of irremovability of judges, introducing limited immunity for judges, establishing the election of chairmen and deputy chairmen of courts of all levels by the judges themselves and the procedure for distributing cases among judges by lot, as well as expanding the scope of competence of a jury. “...If President Medvedev manages to achieve the revival of an independent judiciary in Russia, he will go down in history as a liberating president. Regardless of whether he succeeds in reforming the first and second powers,” Khodorkovsky concluded.

In July 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation refused to accept for consideration Khodorkovsky’s complaint, in which he demanded that certain provisions of Articles 160 (“Misappropriation or Embezzlement”) and 158 (“Theft”) of the Criminal Code, under which he was charged, be recognized as contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. 2008.

In August 2009, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow extended the arrest of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev until November 17, 2009, and then it was extended until February 2010. In October 2009, one of the witnesses in the YUKOS case, former vice-president of Tomskneft Guram Avanishvili, accused Khodorkovsky of the “collapse” of the oil industry of the Tomsk region: in his opinion, Khodorkovsky’s arrival led to a reduction in geological exploration and tax revenues to the regional budget.

In October 2009, Khodorkovsky’s article “Modernization: Generation M” appeared in the Vedomosti newspaper. It was a response to Medvedev’s article “Forward Russia!” published in September, in which the president told readers about his vision of the “strategic vectors of economic modernization” of the country. Commenting on the article by the head of state, Khodorkovsky noted that he was depressed by the justification expressed in it for the possibility of “starting modernization in Russia without abandoning the authoritarian system.” In his opinion, the president needs to create a special social class of modernizers in the country, the so-called generation M, which should be based on professional innovators, scientists, engineers, and representatives of the humanitarian intelligentsia. Medvedev’s idea of ​​modernizing the country, according to the former head of YUKOS, “may not turn into profanation” if he entrusts it to such people.

Around the same time, “Dialogues” between the writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Khodorkovsky appeared in the October issue of the Znamya magazine, representing their correspondence from October 2008 to July 2009. In his letters, Khodorkovsky spoke about his formation, his attitude towards the Soviet and post-Soviet system. Khodorkovsky defined himself as a “Voltairian, i.e. a supporter of free thought, freedom of speech” and at the same time a supporter of increasing the actual role of the state in the life of Russian society. He also denied violations of the law on his part, noting that “our laws are normal, no worse or better than in other countries, but with law enforcement and with the courts it is a disaster.” In January 2010, it became known that for “Dialogues” Khodorkovsky became a laureate of the Globus literary prize, established by the All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature named after M.I. Rudomino and awarded annually for a work that promotes the rapprochement of peoples and cultures, published in the pages of the magazine "Znamya", , .

In February 2010, the court once again extended the arrest of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. In April of the same year, Khodorkovsky’s defense filed a request to summon Prime Minister Putin to the trial, but the court called the request “premature.”

After the Khamovnichesky Court extended the arrest period for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev for another three months on May 14, 2010, Khodorkovsky declared an indefinite hunger strike and addressed an open letter to the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Lebedev with a complaint that the law that had recently entered into force prohibited take into custody citizens accused of economic crimes without sufficient grounds. However, after the press service of President Medvedev announced that he had read Khodorkovsky’s open letter, on May 19 he decided to end the hunger strike. On the same day, the court accepted the defense’s request to summon high-ranking officials to the trial, including the head of Sberbank German Gref and the Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko, , , . On May 24, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov spoke in court in defense of the former owner of Yukos, saying that the activities of this and other oil companies were carefully controlled by the government, and therefore the accused could not steal the oil. Gref and Khristenko, who appeared in court in June, also actually admitted that Yukos’s operations were in accordance with the law and were known to the government.

In October 2010, it became known that the prosecutor's office reduced the claims against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev: by this time they were already accused of stealing not 350 million tons of oil, but 218 million tons of oil. The prosecution also announced its intention to mitigate the required punishment, but continued to insist on proof of guilt former leaders"YUKOS".

In the fall of 2010, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce issued a decision according to which Russia, in accordance with the terms of the Russian-British agreement on the protection of investments, is obliged to pay damages in the amount of $3.5 million to RosinvestCo UK Ltd (a former minority shareholder of Yukos). According to experts, since the investment protection agreement did not guarantee the parties the absence of commercial risks, the arbitration decided that the cause of Yukos’s bankruptcy was not the risky conduct of business, but the illegitimate actions of the state.

In December 2010, Khodorkovsky was awarded the German award for human rights activities - the Rainer Hildebrandt International Human Rights Award.

On December 27, 2010, the Khamovnichesky Court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty of oil theft and money laundering and sentenced them to 14 years in prison in both cases. Lawyers for the defendants said they intend to appeal the court's decision.

In January 2011, the book “Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Articles. Dialogues. Interviews” (Eksmo Publishing House) was published, which included various publications by Khodorkovsky, his correspondence with writers Chkhartishvili, Ulitskaya and Boris Strugatsky, as well as numerous interviews. The author of the preface to the book was the famous journalist Leonid Parfenov.

The Vedomosti newspaper in early February 2011 published an open letter from Khodokrovsky to Medvedev, in which he called on the president to “ensure the independence of the court, and not just declare it.” At the same time, the former head of YUKOS stated that he had information that judge Viktor Danilkin, who sentenced him in the second case, was under pressure. In the same month, the press attaché of the Khamovnichesky Court, Natalya Vasilyeva, stated that the verdict against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev was drawn up not by Danilkin, but by higher authorities, but the judge denied this statement.

On March 14, 2011, a letter was published from forty-five writers, actors, musicians, scientists and journalists who appealed to the influential human rights organization Amnesty International with a request to recognize Khodorkovsky and Lebedev as prisoners of conscience. Among those who signed this letter were writers Chkhartishvili (Akunin), Ulitskaya, Boris Strugatsky, theater and film figures Liya Akhedzhakova, Oleg Basilashvili, Eldar Ryazanov, Sergei Yursky, academician Yuri Ryzhov, musicians Gidon Kremer and Arvo Pärt, journalists Vladimir Pozner, Leonid Parfenov and other , .

Back in February 2011, the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Promoting the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights proposed conducting independent examinations into the second Yukos case, as well as into the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a pre-trial detention center. Soon the initiative was approved by Medvedev and supported by the Constitutional Court. A month later, Council Chairman Mikhail Fedotov assembled a commission that was supposed to prepare a legal assessment of the court decision in the second YUKOS case, using only the texts of the court decision and the minutes of the court session.

At the beginning of April 2011, The Sunday Times published information that accounts worth 65 million euros were frozen in an Irish bank, the beneficiary of which was Khodorkovsky. According to the newspaper, the former head of Yukos could place about 200 million euros in Irish banks through third parties. Vadim Klyuvgant, Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, called The Sunday Times’ information untrue, although he did not deny the fact that the businessman has foreign accounts.

In May 2011, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev filed a lawsuit against Danilkin, as well as other investigators and prosecutors involved in the consideration of the second Yukos case, accusing them of “making deliberately unjust decisions.”

On May 24, 2011, the Moscow City Court, having considered the cassation appeal of the lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, upheld the verdict in the second criminal case, reducing their sentences by a year - from fourteen years to thirteen. This allowed Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to submit requests for parole on May 30, since after this verdict it turned out that they had served half of the total sentence, had no outstanding penalties, and, according to their lawyers, they were not required to admit guilt. In addition, in May 2011, the international human rights organization Amnesty International recognized the businessmen as prisoners of conscience, citing that their second sentence was politically motivated. On May 31, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the first of Khodorkovsky's complaints, filed seven years earlier, confirming procedural violations in his case, however, not recognizing the verdict as politically motivated. The ECHR ordered Russia to pay the former head of Yukos 10 thousand euros as compensation for damage received, and another 14.5 thousand for defense costs. Khodorkovsky transferred this money to the “Sitting Rus'” association of journalist Olga Romanova, Chulpan Khamatova’s “Give Life” fund and to the “Podmoskovny” boarding school in Korallovo.

In September 2011, the ECHR also made a decision on the claim of Yukos shareholders against the Russian authorities. The court did not accept that the prosecution of the company was politically motivated, nor that the Russian state was using the Yukos case to destroy or take over the company, and declared the legality of the authorities' use of legal proceedings against Yukos. At the same time, the ECHR found a violation of the company's right to a fair trial, since it was not given enough time to prepare for tax claims.

Khodorkovsky is married for the second time; his wife Inna formerly worked as an expert in the foreign exchange department of the MENATEP bank. He has four children - a son from his first marriage, Pavel, as well as a daughter, Anastasia, and twin sons, Ilya and Gleb, born in marriage to Inna Khodorkovskaya. The press wrote that Pavel Khodorkovsky had lived in the United States since 2003 and worked for an Internet company controlled by Gusinsky. In 2009, Khodorkovsky had his first granddaughter.

Used materials

For a good cause. - Kasparov.Ru, 04.07.2012

The ECHR did not see any politics in the Yukos case. - Interfax, 20.09.2011

Strasbourg admitted the guilt of the Russian authorities in the Yukos case. - BBC News, Russian service, 20.09.2011

Nikolay Sergeev. The Yukos case was stripped of its political implications. - Kommersant-Online, 31.05.2011

The ECHR recognized Khodorkovsky's arrest as not politically motivated, but awarded him €10 thousand. - Gazeta.Ru, 31.05.2011

Alexey Sokovnin. By partial subtraction of terms. - Kommersant-Online, 30.05.2011

The court commuted the sentences of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev by a year. - RIA News, 24.05.2011

The Moscow City Court upheld Danilkin's sentence. But Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will be released a year earlier. - NEWSru.com, 24.05.2011

Amnesty International recognized Khodorkovsky as a prisoner of conscience. - RIA News, 24.05.2011

Russian businessmen declared prisoners of conscience after convictions are upheld. - Amnesty International, 24.05.2011

Alexey Sokovnin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky declared for justice. - Kommersant, 18.05.2011. - № 87 (4628)

Khodorkovsky's cellmate admitted that he was forced to portray a victim of harassment. - Gazeta.Ru, 16.05.2011

Khodorkovsky's lawyer denied information about the seizure of his money and refused to talk about foreign accounts. - NEWSru.com, 04.04.2011

The Times: €65 million belonging to Khodorkovsky was seized in an Irish bank. - Gazeta.Ru, 03.04.2011

John Mooney. Oligarch's €65m frozen. - The Sunday Times, 03.04.2011

Vladimir Novikov. Lawyers have begun an independent examination of the “Khodorkovsky case.” - RIA News, 24.03.2011

"A person convicted solely for expressing his beliefs is a prisoner of conscience." - Press center of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, 14.03.2011

Ryazanov, Basilashvili, Strugatsky and 43 other people asked to recognize Khodorkovsky as a prisoner of conscience. - Infox.ru, 14.03.2011

Anna Pushkarskaya. Valery Zorkin approved public control. - Kommersant, 15.02.2011. - №26 (4567)

Anastasia Kornya. The verdict in the YUKOS case was handed down from above. - Vedomosti, 14.02.2011

Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Winter of Justice: Words and Reality. - Vedomosti, 02.02.2011. - №17 (2783)

Judge V. Danilkin: The verdict was written by me, the verdict was written consciously. - Channel One (1tv.ru), 25.01.2011

Ekaterina Vasenina. The presentation of the book "Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Articles. Dialogues. Interviews" took place today in Moscow. - New Newspaper , 20.01.2011

Ekaterina Kozhevnikova. Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a writer in prison. - Infox.ru, 20.01.2011

Victor Vasiliev. Dialogues of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. - Voice of America, 20.01.2011

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev received 13.5 years in prison in the second case. - NEWSru.com, 30.12.2010

The court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty of oil theft. - ITAR-TASS, 27.12.2010

The defense of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev plans to appeal the verdict. - RIA News, 27.12.2010

M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev were found guilty. - RBC, 27.12.2010

Dmitry Kazmin, Ekaterina Kravchenko, Ivan Vasiliev. YUKOS is a victim of the state. - Vedomosti, 23.12.2010. - №243 (2761)

Jailed Russian ex-oil tycoon Khodorkovsky given rights award. - Agence France-Presse, 13.12.2010

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yuri Schmidt Win Berlin Wall Museum Human Rights Prize. - Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center, 13.12.2010

Irina Tumilovich. The amount of claims against Khodorkovsky has already been reduced by a third. - RAPSI, 18.10.2010

The prosecution reduced the amount of theft charged against Khodorkovsky by 132 million tons of oil. - ITAR-TASS, 18.10.2010

Vladimir Shishlin. Is Khodorkovsky guaranteed a mitigation? - Interfax, 15.10.2010

Boris Alexandrov. Khristenko went to court. - Russian newspaper, 23.06.2010. - №5214 (135)

Vera Chelishcheva. The government was aware. - New Newspaper, 23.06.2010. - №66

Vladimir Shishlin. Witness Gref is invited. - Interfax, 21.06.2010

Kasyanov considers the accusations of oil theft by Khodorkovsky absurd. - RIA News, 24.05.2010

Antonina Chunaeva. Pavel Khodorkovsky: I work and support myself with a salary. - Infox.ru, 19.05.2010

Entrepreneur and owner of the largest Russian oil company Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 was one of the richest citizens of the Russian Federation. In 2005, the owner of $15 billion became the central figure in a high-profile criminal case and went to prison for 13 years.

One of the richest citizens of Russia was born in 1963, on June 26 in Moscow. The family was mixed: a Jewish father and a Russian mother.

Father, Boris Moiseevich Khodorkovsky, was deputy chief technologist at the Kalibr plant. Mom, Marina Filippovna, worked at the same plant as a process engineer. Even in kindergarten, the prerequisites for future activities appeared. There he received the nickname “director”, and at school “theoretician”. My main hobbies at school were chemistry and mathematics. According to unofficial data, Mihali Borisovich changed three special schools in the chemical field.

While still at school, I learned to earn pocket money by sweeping streets, carpentry, and so on. He graduated from school in 1980. School hobbies for chemistry were not in vain and developed further into admission to the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. D.I.Mendeleev in 1981. In addition to studying, Mikhail worked part-time as a carpenter at Etalon, a housing construction cooperative. Having received a honors diploma, in 1986 he became a “technological engineer”.

In 1986–1987, Mikhail Borisovich was engaged in teaching and also served as deputy secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol. Here he developed a vigorous activity and was able to create the Youth Initiative Fund, which made it possible to make a profit from youth events.

Together with Sergei Monakhov and Platon Lebedev, a center for youth creativity in scientific and technical areas was organized in 1987. IN Soviet times such an organization was one of the first to receive the right to do business. The entrepreneur received his first significant income (167,000 rubles) from the IHT (Institute of High Temperatures) at the Academy of Sciences, according to a contract with the director of the institute.

"MENATEP" was created in 1987. In addition, according to the permission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, cooperatives were allowed to engage in computer technology and programming. The entrepreneur took advantage of this opportunity and founded the Nigma company. The main activity of the enterprise was the supply of software to organizations.

Feeling a lack of funds, Khodorkovsky decided to take out a loan from Zhilsotsbank. However, he was refused due to the fact that this bank worked only with other banks and could only issue loans to them. In 1988, at the instigation of Mikhail Borisovich, the newest bank (CIB NTP) was created - the Bank of Scientific and Technical Progress.

IN authorized capital The bank was initially allocated only 2.7 million rubles, and the remaining 2.3 million had to be paid within a year. The entrepreneur was one of the first to use mass television advertising. And also the sale of securities began and thus the required amount was collected.

Parallel entrepreneurial activity, Mikhail Borisovich graduated from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy and received a degree in financier. According to some reports, in addition to the financial side of the issue, he was educated as a lawyer. Khodorkovsky became the chairman of the board of CIB NTP in 1989. The bank itself became a tool for the work of the MENATEP organization. The latter quickly gained momentum and developed a network of representative offices in Hungary, Switzerland, Gibraltar and France.

Even then, Mikhail Borisovich could earn money as the head of a manufacturing enterprise, which included his own plant and institute. Idea full cycle has long excited the mind of an entrepreneur, but before privatization it was not realistic. According to some information, since October 1992, Mikhail Borisovich changed the direction of MENATEPA. The new strategy focused mainly on large clients, who were offered not only economic, but also organizational services.

In 1992, the businessman took 12th place in the list of “50 richest Russians” according to Most magazine. March 1993 was marked by Khodorkovsky's assumption of the post of Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy, Yuri Shafranik. In the same year, he also served as a financial advisor to Viktor Chernomyrdin, then the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

He was re-elected as chairman of MENATEP in July 1993. The bank's strategy began to shift to the investment area. The bank also began to support the state company Rosvooruzhenie, which was founded in 1993. Thanks to this fact, a loan of one trillion rubles was received without interest from the state.

In addition to his main activities, in 1994 Khodorkovsky began financing the Podmoskovny boarding school for orphans, as a tribute to the parents who founded this institution. In July 1995, Khodorkovsky sent Oleg Soskovets a proposal to give away 10 percent of the shares of MENATEP, and in return to receive 45 percent from YUKOS, a state-owned oil production company. But the offer was rejected, and in return the company was sold for real money at a loans-for-shares auction.

The winner of the auction could be the largest investor with a starting capital of $150 million. The initial investments of Khodorkovsky's program were intended for the restoration of the old well fleet, the development of new fields, the development of a petroleum products supply network and modernization.

The auction was won by the Laguna company, whose guarantor was MENATEP Bank. Thanks to this, Mikhail Borisovich acquired a 7.06 percent stake in YUKOS through this bank. He served as chairman of the council from 1995 to 1996. After leaving the position of chairman of the board of MENATEP in 1996, Khodorkovsky joined the management of YUKOS. Initially he served as vice president.

He was also appointed chairman of the board of the new merged company Rosprom-YUKOS in 1997. According to Forbes magazine, Khodorkovsky's personal fortune in 1997 amounted to $2.3 billion. According to the initiative of Mikhail Borisovich and several other businessmen, the YUKSI holding began to be created in 1998. Subsequently, information was received that the creation of the company was stopped.

A new election to the board of directors and to the post of chairman of the board of MENATEP Bank took place in 1998. Also in August of this year, he took over as chairman of YUKOS-Moscow.

On November 12, 1998, Mikhail Borisovich received a position at the Ministry of Fuel and Energy. And in October 1999, he was relieved of his position in connection with an interview where it was said about the company’s decision to organize a reserve fund for the ministry, the main task of which would be to give bribes. In 2000, Mikhail Borisovich took over as president of YUKOS, leaving the post of chairman of the board of YUKOS-Moscow. The businessman became a member of the Entrepreneurship Council in the same year. And also in November of this year he became a member of the bureau of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists of Russia.

Under Khodorkovsky's rule, Yukos shares rose in price from 60 cents to $69.2 in about a year. According to Forbes magazine, Khodorkovsky became the richest Russian in June 2001. Personal wealth was estimated at $2.4 billion. And in 2001 – 3.7 billion.

According to the decision of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, in 2002 Mikhail Borisovich became curator of the Murmansk region. In the same year, he was a judicial arbitrator at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, organized to resolve corporate disputes. As of February 2003, according to Forbes magazine, the billionaire's personal fortune was estimated at $8 billion, which allowed him to take first place in Russia among the richest people and 26th in the world.

He was involved in financing the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko in 2003. In 2003, on July 4, Mikhail Borisovich was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office as a witness in the case of Platon Lebedev, who was charged with the theft of 20 percent of Apatit shares. Troubles at YUKOS initially began at the request of State Duma deputy Mikhail Bugera. According to his statement, Yukos underpaid taxes for 2002. Checks were carried out in the company's archives and a search was carried out.

The businessman himself said that he would leave business at the age of 45, which he will turn in 2008. In addition, the entrepreneur refused to leave the country, remained to support his friend Lebedev and traveled around the country, giving lectures and performances. In 2003, on October 25, a businessman was arrested on the way to Irkutsk, right at the Novosibirsk airport. The charges were related to tax evasion and fraud. After this, on November 3, 2003, Khodorkovsky left the post of chairman of the board of Yukos.

The verdict in the case was made in May 2005. Mikhail Borisovich and Platon Lebedev were initially sentenced to 9 years, which were later changed to 8 years. According to the indictment, they were found guilty of embezzling state funds, tax evasion, fraud, and so on.

The trial of the entrepreneur acquired the status of a political one in two years. Massive propaganda was launched in defense of the businessman, using the media. Various organizations human rights activists organized actions in support. “Prisoner number one,” that’s what the media called Khodorkovsky. The billionaire himself willingly contributed to all this, giving interviews to journalists, answering numerous questions, and became a public person.

The article “Left Turn” was published in early August 2005. It was adopted from the position of returning the oligarch to the values ​​of the left order. It spoke of a change in the political elite, the development of guarantees of social protection for the population, and the resurrection of paternalistic government programs. In the same month of 2005, Mikhail Borisovich, as a protest against Lebedev’s imprisonment in a punishment cell, began a dry hunger strike. The distant colony YAG 14/10 became the place of residence of the entrepreneur, where he was sent in October 2005.

This was followed by the publication of “Left Turn 2”, on November 11, 2005. The article developed previous thoughts. The crisis of 2008 was also predicted and a program for the country’s development until 2020 was proposed. Each such article met with massive interest from the media, despite some doubtful authorship.

In the colony, Khodorkovsky did not behave in the best way, constantly receiving penalties and from time to time ending up in a punishment cell. One time it happened because he left workplace, and the other for drinking tea with the prisoner Kuchma in the wrong place. And so on.

In April 2006, he was attacked by prisoner Kuchma. The face was cut with a shoe knife, resulting in several stitches. After the incident, the businessman was transferred to solitary confinement. According to the official statement, this was done for security reasons. All punishments and placements in the isolation ward were constantly protested by Khodrkovsky’s lawyers, since this could interfere with his parole.

In November 2008, the Vedomosti newspaper published an article “Left Turn 3.” The main idea of ​​this publication was to get rid of the global crisis by turning to “neo-socialism” throughout the world.

The prosecutor's office reviewed Khodorkovsky's case in October 2010 and reduced the claims against the oligarch. Now he was accused of jointly with Lebedev theft of not 350 million tons of oil, but 218 million. In addition, the prosecution also advocated mitigation of the punishment, but other claims in the case of the former Yukos leaders remained in force.

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is married. The second wife, Inna, previously held the position of expert in foreign exchange transactions at MENATEP Bank. Has four children. The son from his first marriage, Pavel, according to press reports, lived and worked in the USA. The same sources claim that he worked for an Internet company owned by Gusinsky. There are also twin sons Gleb and Ilya, as well as a daughter Anastasia. In 2009, Khodorkovsky became a grandfather.

Liberation

On the morning of December 20, 2013, Vladimir Putin signed the Decree “On the pardon of M. B. Khodorkovsky.” A few hours later, Khodorkovsky was released and left the colony in Karelia in an official car of the Federal Penitentiary Service, which proceeded to the Reception House of the Federal Penitentiary Service, and from there to the Petrozavodsk airport.

There, a standard Tu-134 plane was waiting for him, on which Khodorkovsky arrived at St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, from where he flew to Berlin on a private Cessna plane provided by former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Born June 26, 1963, Moscow
In 1986 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. Mendeleev, specialty engineer, chemical technologist.
In 1988 - Institute of National Economy named after. G.V. Plekhanov.
In June 1992, together with his first deputy Leonid Nevzlin, he published the book “The Man with the Ruble” (circulation 50 thousand copies). The book is devoted to the analysis of the careers of modern businessmen.
He became a laureate of the “World Leaders of Tomorrow” competition, organized by the independent foundation “World Economic Forum”. The organizers of the competition, which took place throughout 1992, set themselves the goal of identifying the names of the best 200 young (under 33 years old) entrepreneurs, political and public figures who, according to Forum experts, would become leaders in the global economy and politics in the near future.
In 1986-1987 - Deputy Secretary of the Frunzensky District Committee of the Komsomol.
1987-1989 - Director of the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth - Youth Initiative Foundation.
For some time, in parallel with his work at the NTTM Center, he worked as a carpenter.
In his own words, he received the first “big money” (160 thousand) from the Institute of High Temperatures for “special development”.
From May 1989 to 1990 - Chairman of the Board of the Commercial Innovation Bank for Scientific and Technical Progress, created by NTTM with the help of Zhilsotsbank.
In 1990, the bank bought NTTM from the executive committee of the Moscow City Council and renamed it Menatepinvest (MENATEP - intersectoral and scientific-technical programs).
In 1990, he was an adviser to Russian Prime Minister Ivan Silaev.
1990-1991 - General Director of the interbank association "Menatep".
Since August 1991 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the association of credit and financial enterprises "Menatep".
In 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Investment Fund for the Promotion of the Fuel and Energy Industry with the rights of Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia. In this position he oversees private investments. Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
In March 1993, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia.
In April 1993, Khodorkovsky, together with Smolensky (Stolichny Bank), Gusinsky (MOST-Bank), Agapov (Kredobank), created an open-type joint-stock company with the code name "Plastic Cards of Russia" for issuing credit magnetic cards and for servicing settlements with foreign partners.
In November 1992, he took part in the creation of the Entrepreneurial Political Initiative group.
Since 1993 - Chairman of the Board of MENATEP Bank.
1995 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC Rosprom.
1996 - Chairman of the Board of JSC Rosprom, First Vice-President of JSC NK YUKOS, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC NK YUKOS.
1997 - Chairman of the Board of the management company created by Rosprom and YUKOS.
1998 - Chairman of the Board of the Yukos Oil Company (YUKOS-Moscow LLC, YUKOS-RM CJSC, YUKOS-EP CJSC).
In November 1998, he was appointed 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 filed a lawsuit against Khodorkovsky to protect the honor and dignity of the ministry (the head of Yukos told the Vedomosti newspaper that the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, with its decision to create a reserve fund with an oil export quota, allegedly promotes “theft” and “distribution of export volumes , who needs").
In March 2001, Khodorkovsky announced that in 3 years the company he headed would become an oil and gas company.
In June 2001, he stated that Russian energy companies were unhappy that US President George W. Bush did not include them in his energy strategy.
In December 2001, the Association for the Protection of Investor Rights declared Khodorkovsky the best manager of the year.
On October 8, 2002, by decision of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, he was appointed curator of the Murmansk region.
According to the American magazine Forbes, Khodorkovsky is the richest man in Russia.
On October 25, 2003, he was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention center No. 1. On the same day, the Basmanny Court of Moscow issued a warrant for the arrest of Khodorkovsky. The Prosecutor General's Office charged him under 7 articles, including “fraud,” “tax evasion,” “forgery of documents,” and “causing property damage by deception or breach of trust.”