Radio Free Europe: 'They Are Trying To Break Him'

Inna Khodorkovskaya tells RFE/RL about the impact of prison on her husband, the former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the pressures she faces from the authorities.

PRAGUE, July 31, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Since Mikhail Khodorkovsky was imprisoned three years ago, his wife and their three children have lived in a house in the leafy Moscow suburb of Zhukovka.

The building and the land around it is -- or rather was -- owned by an affiliate of Yukos, the oil company that once made Khodorkovsky one of the richest and most influential men in Russia, Khodorkovskaya explained in a July 25 interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service.

But on May 2 this year, Khodorkovskaya says, a Moscow court impounded the family home, saying it was part of the ongoing investigation into tax evasion at Yukos.

Khodorkovskaya suspects it will not be long before she and the wives of other Yukos executives living in Zhukovka are forced out.

It is part, she says, of the relentless pressure that the authorities are piling on her husband and other Yukos officials.

A Man Much Changed

Khodorkovsky is now incarcerated in a prison camp deep in Siberia. Inna is permitted to visit once every three months. But getting there is a major effort in itself: a nine-hour flight, followed by a 15-hour train journey, followed by a 40-minute car ride.

She is allowed to stay with her husband for three days in a prison hostel that some Russian papers suggest borders on the luxurious. In fact, she insists, they share a simple room furnished with a bed, a chair and a cupboard.

Khodorkovskaya finds her husband much changed -- a consequence, she says, of the psychological, and sometimes physical pressure he is subjected to.
"They raise the pressure, then they reduce it and then they raise it again. So there's no straight upward line, they're just trying to drain him."

"They're trying to break him, nothing more, nothing less," she says of the prison authorities. "These are methods that have probably long been worked on and refined. I would say that it works on the principle of amplitude. They raise the pressure, then they reduce it and then they raise it again. So there's no straight upward line, they're just trying to drain him."

His biggest difficulty, she says, is the isolation and the mental vacuum caused by his inactivity. But he is finding other ways to fill the gap.

"He reads a lot of religious literature. He's not a religious fanatic, he's not completely mad about religion," she says. "His interest is analytical. He doesn't push faith away, but he has begun to experience it in a new way. If before he approached the subject from a sort of historical point of view, now he feels closer to it."

A 'Political Prisoner'

The penal colony where Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving his sentence Khodorkovskaya says she has no doubt that her husband is a political prisoner, sentenced to satisfy the ambitions of the men who now rule the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky himself -- and many independent critics -- describe his trial as a staged farce and a warning to Russia's immensely wealthy oligarchs to stay out of politics.

The Kremlin disagrees. Khodorkovsky, it says, is a criminal who defrauded the state of a massive sum in taxes.
"Of course, no one suggested that things would get quite so bad, but right to the end he intended to stay here [in Russia]. And I did too."

Inna Khodorkovskaya says she and her husband had feared the state would come after him. Nonetheless, the couple had chosen to stay in Russia.

"It was our joint decision. We talked about whether to stay or go, but the decision was simple. What is there, out there? Of course, no one suggested that things would get quite so bad, but right to the end he intended to stay here. And I did too."

In that respect, she says, nothing has changed. If the authorities force her out of her home, she will stay in Russia. The critical issue now is how to bring up her family in the absence of a father.

But Khodorkovskaya betrays little bitterness.

Both she and her husband have been changed by the experience of the last few years, she says. But they will emerge stronger, she believes.

"There are moments when something serious happens in your life and your values change. And, naturally, recent events... my values have grown stronger, I would say. That's to say, my values have really crystallized," she says. "I can't say that they have changed fundamentally. But his probably have because he used to be in politics. Now he sees what's happening there from a slightly different perspective. Naturally, he has changed greatly.”

Lebedev's press center: “Outside I Play the So-Called “Justice” Game With My Lawyers”

July 24, 2006

In an interview with Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Platon Lebedev comments on his life in prison.

How did you spend the winter in Kharp? How was the Polar night?

I had felt boots sent to me from Moscow, size 50. The Federal Penitentiary Service did not provide these. The polar night is very long but it is not eternal, so you don’t have to think about it too much.

Do mosquitoes disturb you? How do you deal with them?

I am afraid of traditional methods – I slap my forehead. In the camp we have “Raptor” [mosquito repellent lotion], and we can use lotions outside, but not liquid, as they are afraid I will drink it. They say there will be black flies as well, which are even worse. I will compare and let you know.

What disturbs you most of all?

The idiocy of judges and other decisions-makers in this country.

Do you like your job?

In these conditions producing traps seems a decent job for your mind. However, they do not offer any job to suit my specialization.

Do you get any information from the outside world? Do you watch TV, read newspapers?

There is a TV in the camp, but they usually watch programmes that are not interesting for me… I regularly get Kommersant, Vedomosti, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Novaya Gazeta newspapers, although they come with a delay.

With whom do you talk about the world events?

With my lawyers.

With whom do you drink tea?

In the camp I drink tea without any excessive company.

Do you play anything in the camp?

I don’t play any games in here, but outside the camp I play the so-called “justice” game together with my lawyers.

Do you discuss the world events with the administration of the penal colony?

It is not common here.

Are you on duty in the camp like everyone else?

Why should I be any different from everyone else, apart from in shoe size?

The Times: Prophet who warns against Putin's 'energy imperialism' - Law - Times Online

By Derek Brower
Civil rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam believes the West is sacrificing democracy on the altar of profit

SHOULD RUSSIA’S state-owned oil company Rosneft launch its $11 billion (£6 billion) initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange this week, investors could well be laundering stolen assets — at least that is how Robert Amsterdam sees it. Amsterdam is lawyer to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once known as the richest man in Russia when he was head of Yukos, the huge oil company.

Khodorkovsky’s plight may have slipped from the attention of many in the West — the oligarch was arrested in 2003 and charged with fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion; tried in 2004, he was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in 2006 — but Amsterdam is determined to change this. He sees the flotation as a way to recapture the agenda.

Amsterdam, a Canadian lawyer who has been at the centre of one of the world’s most watched legal cases for the past three years, is used to this kind of political battle. His relationship to Khodorkovsky has morphed from defence attorney into that of a travelling prophet, giving warning of the spread of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “energy imperialism”.

The Kremlin is attempting, according to Amsterdam, to “whitewash Khodorkovsky’s history, his phoney criminal prosecution and the history of Yukos”. The IPO is nothing less than “state theft” and anyone buying stock will be colluding in a climate of impunity that allows the Kremlin to operate with little regard for international law.

Amsterdam is not alone in that judgment. Others, including George Soros and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, have also questioned the morality of the IPO. Rosneft — with reserves of 19 million barrels of oil equivalent — is one of the biggest companies in the world. Its wealth is based on its acquisition of Yuganskneftegaz, the production company that Yukos was forced to sell to settle some of the massive tax debt the Kremlin said it owed.

Rosneft’s purchase of Yuganskneftegaz was seen as a state-orchestrated attempt to create a national oil major, and the destruction of Yukos as part of a politically motivated campaign against Khodorkovsky.

His belligerent, outspoken style has earned Amsterdam the enmity of the Kremlin. Last September, on the day the appeal against Khodorkovsky’s imprisonment was heard and immediately dismissed, Russia’s secret police force, the FSB, knocked on Amsterdam’s door in the middle of the night and told him he had 24 hours to leave Russia.

Amsterdam has been based in London since, but travels relentlessly in the cause of his client, speaking “from the highest mountain in the loudest voice” to anyone who will listen. In recent weeks he met Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion-turned-democratic politician, and Lech Walesa, and visited the Bundestag.

The morality argument might not wash with hard-nosed investors, but the “dangerous precedent” of this IPO is a threat to any other investor in Russia, claims Amsterdam. By prosecuting the Yukos case, which was based on retroactive tax claims against the company, and proceeding with the flotation, Amsterdam says that the Kremlin has “taken away any security of property” in the country.

Why this should concern the lawyer of a man who has been sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence in far-away Siberia is a moot question. But Amsterdam believes that the “impunity” with which Russia is able to consolidate its “illegal” destruction of his client’s erstwhile company is directly related to the fate of Khodorkovsky himself.

As long as the international governments, the financial institutions that have participated in the valuation of Yuganskneftegaz and the Rosneft flotation, and Russia’s partners in the energy sphere continue to give Russia a “free pass” over issues like the Yukos case and the Khodorkovsky affair, his client will remain in prison,Amsterdam argues.

In Russia, Amsterdam is dismissed as nothing more than a PR spokesman for Khodorkovsky, and is accused of “going political”. But, says Amsterdam, it was the corruption of the “show trial” in Moscow that forced Khodorkovsky’s legal team to take his defence public. “When people use courts as stage props,” says Amsterdam, “there is no alternative”.

The extra-legal nature of the “project”, as those close to Khodorkovsky and his legal team call the efforts to free him, has drawn Amsterdam into the realm of energy politics. Khodorkovsky, he believes, is a “hostage” of the Kremlin in its imperialist ambitions and until these ambitions are recognised by the West, Khodorkovsky will remain in prison.

But first Amsterdam believes Russia must be forced to accept the international rule of law, including the European Energy Charter, a treaty governing international energy co-operation. “When Russia starts to acknowledge the rule of law in any area — but particularly the energy area — then my client starts to be set free.”

Amsterdam says: “A culture of impunity has put Khodorkovsky in jail. He will serve as a symbol of the destruction of the rule of law in Russia. And the minute that the Russians start being accountable, there is a psychological change that, in my view, begins to open the prison door.”

Amsterdam has not seen Khodorkovsky since his appeal failed. His client is now imprisoned in a “concentration camp” near Krasnokamensk. Earlier this year a fellow inmate slashed Khodorkovsky across the face with a knife, which lends some credence to Amsterdam’s claim that his first ambition is simply to keep him alive.

7.18.2006

RIA Novosti : Court raises Yugansk creditor claims to Yukos to $4 bln

16:03 | 17/ 07/ 2006

MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow Arbitration Court increased Monday the claims of creditors of Yuganskneftegaz to Yukos Oil Company from 75 billion rubles (about $2.7 billion) to 108.7 billion rubles (about $4 billion).

The court satisfied a motion filed by the former main production unit of Yukos to include additional claims in the register of Yukos creditors.

The Independents : Loser in the Rosneft float rots in Siberian prison cell

By Michael Harrison
Published: 15 July 2006

Today will be much the same as every other day for the inmates of Krasnokamensk penal colony IK-10 in eastern Siberia. As President Vladimir Putin greets the world leaders gathered 4,000 miles away in Moscow for the G8 Summit, Mikhail Khodorkovsky will wake, as usual, in the cramped barracks he shares with 80 prisoners. It is day 994 of his incarceration for tax fraud - 1,926 days to go.

Krasnokamensk, it hardly needs saying, is no holiday camp. Built in the 1960s to house 1,000 prisoners, it provides labour for a nearby uranium mine and processing plant. The jail and surrounding area are said to be heavily contaminated with radioactive waste which is seeping into the water table. Human rights monitors have declared Krasnokamensk an environmental catastrophe. The region, which borders Mongolia and China, also suffers from extreme weather. Right now, it is suffocatingly hot but in the winter the temperature can drop to -33C.

After a breakfast of porridge or bread and boiled potatoes (there is no fruit, fish or eggs and little meat), the daily grind begins. Convicts work either in the nearby Priargunsky uranium plant or, if they are lucky, in the car repair, carpentry and sewing workshops in the penal colony. Khodorkovsky works in the sewing room for 10 hours a day.

The Russians could not have chosen to imprison him in a more remote or godforsaken place. From Moscow, where his wife and three children live, the journey to the prison takes six hours by plane and then a further 15 hours by train. Since Krasnokamensk is six hours ahead of Moscow, it takes more than a day to complete the trip.

Khodorkovsky is allowed four visits a year from relatives, although his lawyers have more frequent access. His mother Marina and his wife Inna have visited three times but his father is too frail to undertake the journey and his children have not seen him for nearly three years.

His has limited contact with the outside world. He gets the odd newspaper but is not allowed access to the internet and can watch only what the other inmates want to watch on television. But this does not mean the outside world has forgotten about Khodorkovsky. He receives 500 letters a day and there is a website dedicated to his trial and imprisonment and the ongoing battle to win compensation for his former company Yukos.

He has no special privileges in jail - in fact it is the opposite. He is watched constantly by two special guards and has been placed in solitary confinement three times since his transfer to Krasnokamensk in October - on one occasion for drinking tea in an undesignated area, on another for unauthorised possession of two lemons.

Inna says although he has turned slim and grey, he remains mentally sharp. His inner strength has not deserted him but the threat of physical violence is ever present. Three months ago he was assaulted in his sleep with a knife. Although Khodorkovsky's lawyers are habitually strip-searched, the inmate who conducted the attack concealed the weapon in his belongings for two months. The prison administration did not press charges.

At night Khodorkovsky can hear the rumble of trains transporting oil from what were once his oilfields across the border and into China - another reminder of what used to be and why oil has become such a powerful tool for the Kremlin. Three weeks ago, Khodorkovsky marked his 43rd birthday in penal colony IK-10. Life expectancy there is 42. Its most famous inmate is now living on borrowed time.

Interfax : European MPs call for moving Khodorkovsky to jail near Moscow

OSCOW. July 14 (Interfax) - Members of the European parliament
have called for transferring former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky from
Siberia to a prison near Moscow and guaranteeing him a fair trail. The
request is addressed to President Vladimir Putin in an open letter
posted on Khodorkovsky's official website.
The G8 presidency and St. Petersburg summit can become a good
chance for Russia to get rid of accusations of brutal treatment of
Khodorkovsky, the prisoner, the letter says. It invites Putin to move
Khodorkovsky to a prison near Moscow in keeping with Russian law and
guaranteeing him a fair trial as soon as possible.
Over 100 members of the European parliament from 23 EU countries
expressed concern over the conditions of Khodorkovsky's confinement.
They view him as a political prisoner, and his trial, a parody of
justice.
The signatories include Hans-Gert Poettering, head of the European
People's Party, and Elmar Brok, head of the International Affairs
Committee of the European Parliament.

The Independent : Robert R. Amsterdam: Allowing this sale of 'stolen goods' is a disgrace

Published: 10 July 2006

I was involved in defending Mikhail Khodorkovsky during one of the worst show-trials since the Stalin era. I was forcibly deported from Russia, and other lawyers were, and remain, incarcerated for defending Mr Khodorkovsky. But nothing prepared me for the London Stock Exchange allowing itself to be involved while Mr Khodorkovsky and other entrepreneurs involved with Yukos have been sent to the gulag to silence them.

The imminent flotation of Rosneft, the main Kremlin-controlled state oil company, is anticipated by foreign investors seeking to profit from Russia's growing oil wealth. This flotation presents a new calculus in investment management. Russia has invented the "Kremlin Index", based on the "complicity discount". What price will the Kremlin oil barons need to strike to motivate people to join them in their violations of human rights and the rule of law?

This offering is all about legitimising Rosneft's ill-gotten gains. The lion's share of the value of Rosneft is made up of assets formerly belonging to the Yukos oil company, built into one of the world's largest private oil companies by Mr Khodorkovsky.

With Mr Khodorkovsky and others jailed on specious charges, and Yukos crumbling under the weight of baseless tax claims, Rosneft obtained billions of dollars worth of Yukos assets through a questionable auction orchestrated by the Kremlin.

These are the assets now being brought to the London Stock Exchange, with the assistance of bankers who have been crucial in bringing the expropriated assets to the London Market. Rosneft's acquisition of Yuganskneftegaz, the main production subsidiary of Yukos, was described as the "swindle of the year" by a universally respected Russian presidential adviser, who resigned in protest.

Andrei Illarionov said "the enigma of the year" was to know how a shady front company, created just days before the auction with charter capital of only $300, was able to win Yukos' core production assets for $9.35bn, then transfer these assets to Rosneft in its sale to the latter days after its winning bid.

In a legitimate auction, the Yukos assets could have fetched more than $20bn. Where did the front company gather $9.35bn, given that all foreign banks stayed away from financing bids at the auction for fear of the legal consequences? Mr Illarionov said the funds were "taken from the citizens", adding: "Russia is no longer a free country."

This flotation presents foreign investors with a choice and an opportunity. The choice is whether or not to invest in what I consider stolen goods. Choosing to invest in Rosneft is investing against human rights and the rule of law, since brutal disrespect for both is what made the flotation possible.

At the close of his trial, Mr Khodorkovsky said: "The whole country knows why I have been put in prison. It is so that I do not hinder the pillaging of Yukos."

The opportunity presented by the Rosneft flotation is to take a principled stand, responding with a resounding nyet, to send a clear message to Moscow that the funds and the respect of foreign investors must be earned.

The proposed Rosneft financing raises numerous critical issues for international investors and capital markets. These concerns include the failure of the Russian state to adhere to international standards of disclosure, its attempt to strong-arm international investment banks into supporting its international financing efforts, its riding roughshod over foreign investors in Yukos, and its wilful disdain for the rights in property of investors.

Unless governments and regulators of Western capital markets stop this financing, not only is it probable that investors foolish enough to purchase Rosneft will suffer the sort of shabby treatment meted out to Yukos shareholders, but their tacit support of these Russian initiatives will harm western capital markets.

Robert Amsterdam is International defence counsel of Mikhail Khodorkovsky