Booker Prize Dumps Khodorkovsky

Open Russia NGO said the Russian Booker foundation is no longer workingwith them. Oddly enough, an independent literature prize has given up its sponsor, not vice versa.

Russian Booker was set up in 1992 and was sponsored by 1996 by Booker, British commercial firm. The awards have been called Booker Open Russian since 2002 when the new sponsor appeared.

The decision to freeze contacts with Open Russia was taken before the announcement of the winner of Booker 2005. A statement of the change of the major sponsor was made on Open Russia’s website on the day after the awards ceremony. The reason cited is the situation around Open Russia – the foundation’s chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky is behind the bars, while the police search at the organization’s offices. Open Russian understands the position of Booker but says it is still willing to finance the awards for a number of years.

The organization committee of the Russian Booker Awards confirmed the news. Igor Shaytanov, secretary of the committee, admitted that the contract was suspended on their initiative and noted that the agreement between the two organizations was signed annually but “none of the parties gave any guarantees for a period more than a year. The official said that the foundation had received a proposal for a long-term cooperation back in October.

Novelist Vasily Aksenov, chairman of the jury of Booker 2005, reacted to the news citing Lermontov: “The love was joyless, the parting will bear no grief.”

Kommersant, 12.07.2005