In an extensive interview with the Financial Times, Khodorkovsky speaks about the worst days in prison, why he believes Putin pardoned him, and what he sees his role as in Russia moving forward. Excerpt below: “Economic crisis won’t decide anything by itself, unless society understands that there’s an alternative,” he says. “And that’s what we’re trying to show people.” If things continue to deteriorate, the Russian president could, says Khodorkovsky, be forced from power in various ways, including a palace coup by his entourage. “We don’t know of a single authoritarian regime that is eternal, still less one that’s not based on any ideology. There’s the question of whether we’ll live to see this or not, but there’s a chance we will.” He laughs. His programme to set Russia on the path to democracy centres on establishing a pravovoye gosudarstvo, a law-based state, or rule of law. There must be separation of powers, an independent judiciary, independent opposition and regular changes of power. If he became interim leader, he says, he would confine himself to conducting such reforms, then call free elections and stand down. ft/intl/cms/s/0/cb25bc5e-8448-11e4-bae9-00144feabdc0.html
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:55:03 +0000
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