Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian businessman and ex-owner of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos. According to his fortune, 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 against 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 verdict had a resonant assessment in society - some consider him justly convicted, while others call him a "prisoner of conscience", prosecuted for political reasons. At the time of his release from prison, the amount in his account did not exceed $ 100 million.

Childhood and youth

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

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

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

At the university, Khodorkovsky was considered the best student in the faculty, despite the fact that acute financial need forced him to earn extra money as a carpenter in a housing cooperative in his free time from studies. In 1986, he graduated with honors from the university and received a diploma in process engineering.

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

Bank "Menatep"

Thanks to his first "brainchild" and acquaintance with Golubovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky took a strong cell in the world of big business and in 1989 created the Menatep commercial bank of scientific and technological progress, becoming chairman of its board. Khodorkovsky's bank was one of the first to obtain a license from the State Bank of the USSR, which allowed it to carry out financial operations of the tax, the Ministry of Finance and Rosvooruzhenie.

In 1992, Khodorkovsky's professional biography took 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 the position of 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 in public authorities.

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

Yukos

In 1995, Khodorkovsky approached 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 refinery Yukos, which was in a crisis state, the first in terms of oil reserves.

After the auction, Menatep became the owner of a 45% stake in Yukos, and then Khodorkovsky's bank acquired another 33% stake in the oil company, for which, together with 5 partners, he paid $ 300 million.

Later, at a cash auction, Menatep again received an impressive amount of shares in the most tasty morsel of Russia's oil business and control of 90% of Yukos shares.

Having become the owner of Yukos, Khodorkovsky began to lead 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 refinery became the leader in the global energy market with a capital of over $40 million.

Difficulties in doing business did not prevent Mikhail Borisovich from becoming a co-founder of the charitable organization "Openrussia Foundation" in 2001, 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 in the Russian Federation. After Khodorkovsky was released from prison, 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 embezzlement of public funds and tax evasion. After that, a search of the Yukos office was carried out, all shares and accounts of the company were arrested by the Russian prosecutor's office.

According to the investigation, later recognized by the court, in 1994 the oil tycoon created a criminal group, whose activities were aimed at illegally seizing shares of various companies at a reduced price in order to resell them at market prices.

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

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

Khodorkovsky called the crime incriminated to him an absurdity, because if he stole all the Yukos oil, which is 350 million tons, then from what then were wages paid to employees, taxes paid to the state in the amount of $ 40 million and wells were drilled, new fields were developed .

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

The convicts were transferred to a penal colony in the Karelian city of Segezha, and in Russia a loud discussion of the criminal trial of Khodorkovsky unfolded, which was publicly condemned by a public figure, an opposition politician, a former mayor of Moscow, a member of the Commission on Human Rights 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 arrogant manner." Also condemned Khodorkovsky's verdict and the West - 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 accusation, Khodorkovsky declared a 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 search, the orders of 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.

In the same place, in Chita, the prisoner Khodorkovsky also became a “victim” of cellmate Alexander Kuchma, who cut the face of the oligarch with a shoe knife. According to Kuchma, unknown people pushed him to the crime, who literally “knocked out” actions against Mikhail from him. The prisoner said that he was also required to testify in front of the camera that he cut Khodorkovsky's face in the background of the latter's sexual harassment.

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

Upon his arrival in Berlin, Khodorkovsky spoke at a press conference and stated that after his release he did not intend to participate in politics, sponsor the Russian opposition, or engage in business. His key plan for the future was public activities aimed at the release of political prisoners in Russia.

Within a few years, the opinion of the former oil tycoon changed radically - before the presidential elections, he activated his activities, which experts assessed as a desire to break through to the top of power. Khodorkovsky himself declares that he is ready to become president of the Russian Federation in order to carry out a 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, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said 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 the Ukrainian nationalists brave people who honestly defended their freedom.

While still in prison, Mikhail Borisovich began his literary activity. His work was analytical in nature. In the mid-2000s, the books “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 part with your life.

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

Repeatedly in his interviews, Khodorkovsky touched on the topic of his relationship with the Russian president. 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 there is a stereotype in society 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."

On a personal YouTube channel, as well as on social networks

Borisovich is an example of the unpredictability of life, it is full of ups and downs, dizzying successes and fatal failures. Today, the name of Khodorkovsky is surrounded by a mass of rumors, myths and conjectures, so how did his fate develop?

Childhood and family

Khodorkovsky (biography, whose parents were the most ordinary at the beginning of his life) was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow, in a family of engineers at the Caliber plant. His father was a chief technologist for a long time, his mother was an ordinary process engineer. The family did not have much wealth, his father was a homeless child in the past, a Jew by nationality, he worked conscientiously all his life. Mom had noble ancestors, but this was not a subject of discussion in the house. The biography of Khodorkovsky, whose family belonged to representatives of the technical intelligentsia in the best sense of the word, began very typically for the USSR. For the first four years of his life, Mikhail lived in a communal apartment, then the family moved to a separate one.

Misha from childhood was distinguished by great seriousness, he was even nicknamed "director" in kindergarten, at school the nickname "theorist" was firmly entrenched in him. He studied well, showed great abilities in mathematics and chemistry. He studied at a special school, studied chemistry, at home, together with his parents, solved problems in this subject and did various experiments. In addition to studying, Mikhail also practiced karate and sambo, read a lot.

Years of study

Misha Khodorkovsky, whose biography has been associated with chemistry since childhood, in 1980 enters the Chemical-Technological Institute. Mendeleev. It was not the most brilliant university, it was not difficult for a gifted young man to study there. In parallel, he is engaged in social work: he actively participates in the life of the Komsomol, leads the construction team. It was he who found work in Siberia, he himself conducted all negotiations with the directors of enterprises, and in the summer the students earned good money. His squad in the fourth year became the best in harvesting. In 1985, Khodorkovsky graduated from high school with honors and has the opportunity to choose the place of distribution. He wanted to work at a closed enterprise in Siberia, but it did not work out. There are several versions why the plans did not come true. They say that the nationality, recorded according to the father in Mikhail's passport, interfered, another version says that the choice of the graduate was influenced by the speech of the rector, who spoke about the futility of doing science at the present stage.

Later, Mikhail entered the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy as a financier (graduated in 1988).

First earnings

The working biography of Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich began in childhood. While studying at school, he swept the streets, cut bread in a bakery, worked as a carpenter's assistant - this is how the boy managed to earn pocket money and for reagents. While studying at the institute, he also constantly worked as a carpenter in the Etalon building cooperative. He always had a desire to make money, and he found a way how to do it.

Youth work

After graduating from high school, the biography of Khodorkovsky, whose nationality was “Jewish” by his father, turned out a little differently than he dreamed of, due to the fact that he could not get into a secret institute engaged in defense development. Therefore, Mikhail worked for some time as a released deputy secretary of the Komsomol university, and then became deputy secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol. At this time, a wave of commercialization of everything begins, including public organizations, they were given a little economic freedom. Khodorkovsky, along with Sergei Monakhov, took advantage of this. It establishes the Youth Initiative Fund, which makes it possible to profit from youth activities. Later, on the basis of this fund, the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth grew up. The creation of such a center was dictated by the spirit of the time, Khodorkovsky listened sensitively to the surrounding events and was able to feel the expected profit in this enterprise. The point was not to support youth projects, but that such centers were allowed to engage in commercial activities for self-sufficiency. And Mikhail developed a stormy activity: he organized the import and sale of computers, the sale of alcohol, and created a workshop for the production of "boiled" jeans. All this brought considerable profits. But Khodorkovsky only scaled up, he managed to create a system for cashing out money from other organizations that could not make payments. At this time, he earns his first really big money. He became the "inventor" of many financial schemes, which were later used by numerous followers.

At this time, Khodorkovsky acquires large, useful connections that help him reach a new level.

MENATEP

In 1989, Khodorkovsky and his comrades created a commercial bank, and then an interbank association, abbreviated as MENATEP. He himself stands at the head of the enterprise, Nevzlin and Golubovich become deputies, Dubov manages subsidiary banks. The bank is one of the first in the country to receive a state license and starts selling foreign currency, and then issues its own shares, which are actively advertised on TV. Shareholders did not wait for the promised huge dividends. The bank served many large state structures, which created a gigantic turnover.

During the years of privatization, MENATEP was actively involved in buying up the country's property. By manipulating loans-for-shares auctions, the bank becomes the owner of a 90% stake in the country's second largest oil company, Yukos. From that moment on, Khodorkovsky is no longer interested in being a banker, he plunges into a new industry for himself.

Yukos

Khodorkovsky's biography takes a new turn, he is fond of other business. Oil opens up the broadest possibilities for the implementation of various projects. But before he had time to turn around, the year struck, which undermined the stability of Khodorkovsky's bank and "planted a stain" on Yukos, which did not want to pay dividends. Mikhail Borisovich quickly caught on, was able to level his business, although the bank had to be abandoned. After the default, he is engaged in the establishment of oil production and export, restructuring the company, increasing the transparency of income and expenses, which returns the confidence of investors. By 2003, Yukos shares had doubled in value. The company will also apply various methods of "tax optimization" to increase the profitability of the business. In 2003, Forbes estimated Khodorkovsky's fortune at $8 billion, calling him the richest Russian of the year.

Khodorkovsky twice makes attempts to create a single campaign for Yuksi (together with Abramovich's Sibneft). He devised a scheme that would allow him to insure his business and become the richest man in the world, but law enforcement intervened and dashed his hopes.

Political activity

Khodorkovsky's biography has always been associated not only with earnings, but also with the public and political sphere. In 1990-91, he and Nevzlin were advisers to Prime Minister Silaev, whom they had known since the times of the Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth. In 1993, Mikhail became chairman of the Investment Fund for the Promotion of TEP. In subsequent years, he is a member of many committees and councils of various levels, up to the government. Since 1999, most of the company's capital has been spent on creating an image and lobbying interests in the government. Khodorkovsky also does charity work - he supports a boarding school for orphans. He finances the election campaign of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko in the districts where large oil fields are located. In 2003, he sponsors four parties in the elections at once.

In 2002, Khodorkovsky created the Open Russia Foundation, whose board of directors included G. Kissinger. By 2004, there were more than 50 branches of the organization throughout the country, which was engaged in the modernization of education, provided the Internet to remote regions, and worked with young people. The Foundation helped Khodorkovsky popularize his business and his worldview.

Prosecutions and years of imprisonment

In 2003, Khodorkovsky's biography takes a sharp turn. In February, he clashes with Putin on the issue of the legitimacy of the sale of Rosneft, this was the last straw, the authorities ran out of patience. The government has long had a lot of questions about the activities of Yukos, he was reminded of the "tax optimization" and opened a criminal case, first against Lebedev, and then against Khodorkovsky. He did not want to leave the country, despite all the warnings of his friends, and stayed to support the arrested Lebedev, but on October 25, 2003 he was arrested on the way to Irkutsk.

In 2005, the court passed a verdict, Lebedev and Khodorkovsky received 8 years each, but they did not admit their guilt and insisted on the political bias of the court. While the investigation and trial were going on, a PR campaign was unfolding in the media, which accused Khodorkovsky of trying to carry out an oligarchic coup in the country. In the West and in opposition circles, on the contrary, they said that the case had political overtones. The ECHR recognized the accused as “prisoners of conscience”, although it did not confirm the obvious presence of a political component in the case. Yukos property was confiscated to pay off debts, but foreign assets could not be seized.

In 2006, a new oil theft case was initiated, in which Khodorkovsky received a term of 14 years, which he had to serve in

In prison, Khodorkovsky continued to fight for his rights, he published several articles and statements in the Western press, went on hunger strikes four times, and was sent to the isolation ward more than once for violating the prison regime. At this time, the public did not abandon attempts to defend Khodorkovsky - actions were held, letters and articles were written.

Liberation

Khodorkovsky's biography, the family in which the children became the main reason for seeking release, changed when he nevertheless filed a petition for pardon. In 2013, Putin said at a press conference that Khodorkovsky could be pardoned if he asked for it. The petition, in fact, was an admission of guilt, but since Mikhail's mother was very sick, he went for it. And on December 20, 2013, he was released, the lawyers hastily organized Khodorkovsky's departure to Berlin.

Life on the loose

Khodorkovsky's biography again takes a turn, after 10 years in prison, he settles in Switzerland, receives a residence permit. At first, the press bothers him a lot. After emigration, a new Mikhail Khodorkovsky appears. Biography, wife, private life now, according to him, will be the main thing for him, and he will live outside of politics. However, he fails to refrain from making political statements; after a few months he comments on the situation in Russia and criticizes the country's government. In March 2014, Khodorkovsky says he is ready to become a mediator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. In September 2014, he “restarts” Open Russia, experts regard this as the return of Mikhail Borisovich to politics. Khodorkovsky often appears as an expert on the political situation in Russia in the Western media, he participates in public events. His speech at the festival in Paris in 2014 that he was ready to become the president of Russia and do everything to create a civil society in the country was taken as a declaration of intent.

Personal life

Khodorkovsky's first marriage was concluded in his student days. The first wife Elena in 1985 gave birth to Michael's son Pavel. In 1991, Khodorkovsky marries a second time. His second wife, Inna, bore him three children: a daughter and two twin sons. In 2009, Mikhail becomes a grandfather. Mikhail Khodorkovsky defined his current priorities after his release: family, wife, children. Photos of the entire family are almost impossible to find, as he carefully guards his privacy. But he spent 10 years away from loved ones and is now trying to catch up.

Khodorkovsky, biography, family, photos of private life are of great interest to the media, and this is tiring. But nevertheless, he regularly gives interviews, appears at big events, his life goes on.

The biography of Khodorkovsky, in which his wife and children have become the largest part, is still in a calm stage. He is improving his life, arranging affairs, but more and more often in an interview it is let out that he has a desire to change Russia. This gives the authorities reason to think that he still has political ambitions. This is how many oppositionists explain the emergence of accusations of Khodorkovsky in the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, which they call "the third Yukos case."

Mikhail Borisovich says that he is not worried about the next announcement of him on the wanted list by the Russian authorities, he continues to comment on the events in the country. However, Khodorkovsky, a family for whom children are very important, does not make harsh political statements.

Society, 11 Feb, 16:24

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Expressed ... , considers Khodorkovsky, it is more correct to pose the question: not who, but what after Putin? Interview Khodorkovsky Yuri Dudyu: the main thing Ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky got arrested...

Childhood and youth

Mikhail graduated from Moscow school No. 277. There he was fond of mathematics and chemistry. In 1981, the future entrepreneur entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. Mendeleev. As a student, he worked as a carpenter at the Etalon housing cooperative. This did not interfere with his studies at all, he was the best student in his course. At the university, Khodorkovsky married a classmate named Elena. Well, in 1985, the son Pasha appeared in the family. Later, Mikhail graduated with honors from the institute with a degree in process engineering. After that, he began working as a released deputy secretary of the Komsomol MKhTI and graduated from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy.

First business

Creation of a commercial bank

Well, after obtaining a license from the State Bank, "Menatep" got the opportunity to serve the funds of the Ministry of Finance, tax, "Rosvooruzhenie". After the collapse of the USSR, Menatep took part in privatization. For the new industrial empire, a separate organization, Rosprom, was created. By the end of the 90s, only mining enterprises, for example, Murmansk Apatit, remained in the ownership of Khodorkovsky from a huge number of objects. Ten years later, Khodorkovsky and his partner Lebedev were convicted for violations that were revealed during the privatization of Apatit.

And before that, in 1995, after the end of the "voucher" privatization, the Yukos company passed into the ownership of Khodorkovsky through loans-for-shares auctions. After the purchase, Khodorkovsky lost interest in banking and became interested in the development of industrial business. Bank "Menatep" was taken over by hired managers, they made it a branch in St. Petersburg "Menatep SPb", later "Trust". Khodorkovsky's banking business was later completely bought out. And during the default of 1998, Menatep collapsed, he could not repay loans in foreign currency and lost his license. Several foreign banks financed Menatep on the security of Yukos shares. In order not to lose control over the company, Khodorkovsky announced his intention to take an additional issue of shares, the banks relented. This undermined the reputation of the entrepreneur and his companies in financial circles for a long time. Mikhail applied for new loans to Western banks only in 2003.

Yukos

And from 1997 until 2004, Mikhail Khodorkovsky served as co-owner and head of the Yukos oil company. She passed to the entrepreneur after loans-for-shares auctions.

Arrest. First case

At the time of his arrest, Mikhail was considered the richest Russian, and he was ranked 16th on the Forbes list. At the same time, Khodorkovsky, along with Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Nemtsov, were considered as a presidential candidate.

The reason for starting an investigation against the owners of Yukos was the request of State Duma deputy Yudin about the legality of the privatization of the Apatit plant in 1994. It was controlled by Khodorkovsky and his associates. A few days later, another criminal case appeared about tax evasion by structures that are under the Yukos oil company and embezzlement. Later, the case broke up into several, in relation to individual employees. However, according to some versions, there is also a political component in the case.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky on video

At first, the investigation was carried out in strict secrecy, but on July 2, 2003, the case became known after Platon Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors of Menatep, was arrested.

Khodorkovsky was not very worried at first by the Prosecutor General's Office. He was only interrogated as a witness. But in the fall, serious claims appeared against the entrepreneur. And on October 25, 2003, Mikhail's plane at the Novosibirsk airport was blocked by FSB officers, Khodorkovsky was sent to Moscow to the investigative committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, then placed in a pre-trial detention center. Claims against him are the same as against Lebedev, theft of other people's property, non-execution of a court decision, damage to property, tax evasion, forgery of documents, misappropriation, embezzlement of other people's property.

At this time, the accounts and assets of Yukos were frozen. Part of the money went to taxes and salaries to employees, the other was deducted in favor of the state on account of debts. The company began to fall apart.

In May 2005, Khodorkovsky was found guilty. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison with serving a sentence in a penal colony, later it was reduced to 8 years. The entrepreneur was serving his sentence in correctional colony number 10 of the general regime of Krasnokamensk, Chita region.

Second Khodorkovsky case

About the clan of enforcers

In the spring of 2011, the European Court of Human Rights recognized that certain rights were violated in the first case against Mikhail, but the case was not recognized as politically motivated.

hunger strikes

Personal life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky

The official website of Khodorkovsky on the Internet khodorkovsky.ru considers this presentation in the Kremlin about corruption to be the reason for the arrest of our hero. So the banner “For what he was imprisoned” hangs right on the site, and if you click on it, a presentation about corruption will open. However, Khodorkovsky made the presentation at the end of February 2003, and he was imprisoned at the end of October. Six months passed. In these six months, a bunch of important events in the life of the Yukos company fit in.
Two weeks after the meeting in the Kremlin, Roman Abramovich suggested to Khodorkovsky that the Yukos company be merged with the Sibneft company. It was an extremely tempting deal, albeit a risky one. Experts say the two companies fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Raw materials extracted by Sibneft are more profitable to be processed at Yukos refineries, and vice versa. Khodorkovsky spoke about this deal to one of his employees: “You want to go to a restaurant with your girlfriend, but in a restaurant punks can get stuffed in the face. What to do? - Khodorkovsky withstood a pause. - Go with the girl to a restaurant. It must be assumed that Khodorkovsky simply did not come up with the proverb “to be afraid of Putin - do not go to the toilet,” invented by one of the Internet wits, when President Putin threatened on TV to “wet the terrorists in the toilet.”
It seems that Khodorkovsky was most interested in keeping the impending deal secret. And they managed to keep it a secret. In any case, the newspapers learned about the merger of the two companies the day before the official press conference on this matter. For journalists, the merger of Yukos and Sibneft was a surprise. I don't know if this was a surprise in the Kremlin.
- You conducted this transaction as a lawyer? - I ask Anton Drel.
- No, I just helped find some of the lawyers who were involved in preparing the deal. Khodorkovsky did not want to entrust this matter to Yukos lawyers, he was afraid of information leakage.
- Do you understand what he wanted to achieve with this deal?
Make a big company and sell? State? Foreigners?
- Khodorkovsky had a plan to create the first Russian transnational company, - says Anton Drel.
- He wanted to exchange a significant part of the shares of the united company for shares, for example, Exxon obil. The result would be a huge transnational company ExxonMobil-YUKOS-Sibneft, in which Khodorkovsky and Abramovich (that is, Russia) would have about 30%, the largest stake, for a Western company, consider the control. that such a big transnational contraption would have been owned by the Russians I don't know why Yukosovsky's PR never talked about it.
If what the lawyer Anton Drel says is true, then it is wrong to believe the TV presenter Leontiev and think that Khodorkovsky wanted to seize power in the country. Rather, it was about becoming independent from the Russian authorities.
Anton Drel says:
- He did not want to be involved in politics, except for politics every sneeze.
Irina Yasina says:
- I didn't want to be involved in politics. It's just that in a totalitarian country any social activity is considered political activity. For example, we wanted to engage in civic education in schools, because parents cannot teach their children to be free citizens, after all, they themselves have never been free citizens. But we were forbidden to teach freedom and citizenship in schools. This is considered politics. We were allowed only to buy computers for schools and install Internet lines to schools.
On June 17, Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin became Rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The Scientific Council elected Nevz-
lin as rector on the condition that Yukos invest serious money in the Humanities University. Now it seems to me that the efforts of the Yukos shareholders in early 2003 can be summed up in some general picture: they are attacking corruption, they are taking the largest oil company out of state control, they are funding the opposition, they are educating a new generation of free citizens, they are developing a humanitarian science - they seem to have some kind of business plan for Russia. A little more, and Russia will get out of the personal control of President Putin, and will become a completely Western country. In a sense, this is indeed a conspiracy aimed at changing the social order. And it is foolish to think that the Kremlin did not notice such a conspiracy.
On June 19, 2003, Alexei Pichugin, head of the Yukos security service, was arrested. They took him as if he were the only one - a whole bandit formation. Pichugin's office was stormed by 27 commandos, although one could simply show a warrant and enter the door. They searched the office, confiscated the safe, Pichugin asked to call a lawyer for the search, but the lawyer was not called. The investigation and trial in Pichugin's case were closed. His lawyers only reported that during the investigation, in order to “talk” Pichugin, they injected him with psychotropic drugs and drove him crazy.
On July 2, Platon Lebedev was arrested.
“Plato has nothing to do with it at all,” lawyer Anton Drel tells me. “Plato has nothing to do with this whole case at all. He is a pure hostage.
And Khodorkovsky writes to me from prison:
“I believed that the rules of the game can be changed not at all once, but now. I believed in Kasyanov, Putin. It is probably difficult to understand and even more so to believe, but I am, in general, a straightforward person, I do what I say and say what I do, and purely psychologically expect this from others.

I understand everything, but subconsciously I still think that people cannot say one thing, but do the exact opposite. With my mind I understand the possibility of intrigue, and then again I believe and I can’t help myself. I was always corrected by Leonid (Nevzlin. - V.P.), but here he also blundered.
In general, I always really believed in what I was saying when I told the President (the spelling is preserved, Khodorkovsky writes the word “president” with a capital letter. - V.P.), that it is possible and necessary to put an end to corruption, when I proposed and achieved acceptance anti-corruption law “On Pipe”, amendments to tax legislation, adoption of corporate ethics rules, it all works. What we did, no one canceled! Even international reporting is being introduced. It was just that other mechanisms were turned on - a "baseball bat". We dealt with the thieves, but ran into robbers. I could have foreseen - I could, when I realized it was too late, and I had to either kneel or go to jail. Maybe I got up if it weren’t for Plato, in any case, the temptation would have been strong, but he couldn’t quit (Plato. - V.P.).
It follows from Khodorkovsky's letter that if Platon Lebedev had not been arrested, Khodorkovsky would not have gone to prison, but would have surrendered, although we do not know how people surrender in such cases and what kind of annexations and indemnities are in such cases.
- You probably didn’t even hear about Platon Lebedev until he was arrested? says Anton Drel.
And he's almost right. I heard about Platon Lebedev only once. For a year in 1998 or 1999, a story was told in a journalistic get-together about how a reporter from the newspaper Le Tan, Sylvain Besson, came to Moscow to investigate the story of Yukos money in Switzerland, went to talk about it with Platon Lebedev, and he was with Besson rude, said that Besson better not get involved in this matter, and even asked if Besson was afraid that tomorrow a car would run over him in the street. We laughed then that Besson did not even immediately understand that this was a threat. We then decided without discussion that, of course, Lebedev was a bandit, because all of them there, in big business, are bandits. However, Lebedev's threat was not carried out, Besson calmly published his investigation, and no car ran over him.
Irina, a former employee of Lebedev who emigrated to London after Lebedev's arrest, has a different idea of ​​the incident with Sylvan Besson. Remember, Irina appeared in our story in a glimpse four chapters ago? We are talking in a London hotel near Kensington Park. I arrived at this meeting ahead of time, walked through the park and from afar saw Irina enter the hotel. We had never met before, but I immediately thought that this beautiful young woman was Russian. She was the only one of all the passers-by who was not careless in her clothes. Previously in Europe, Russians stood out from the crowd by being too poorly dressed, now they stand out by being too well dressed. Irina says:
- Plato could not stand it when he was not understood for a long time. If I did not understand, I always asked for an explanation, and he never once raised his voice at me. And if a person did not understand, but pretended to understand, Plato began to scream terribly and swear terribly.
Irina remembers Platon Lebedev in a completely different way than Sylvan Besson remembers him. She says that working with Lebedev was a blessing.
- It was 1997 when I came to work for Platon. There was an oil crisis, there were loans taken to buy the Eastern Oil Company, but there was no money at all. We worked twelve hours a day. And when we were very late at work, Platon drove me home. It was very hard, really, believe me. And the server of the Yukos accounting department also crashed, you know how a hard drive in a computer can break. They also restored the bookkeeping. It was very hard, but there was a drive. It seemed that there was no such problem that we could not solve. Ever since February 1998, it became clear about the default that it would definitely happen, but I was more concerned about meeting my direct official duties and did not think about macroeconomic problems. For some reason, we were all sure that when a default occurs, we will also solve this problem. There was a feeling that we are all good fellows.
Irina says that, spending twelve hours together at work, Platon Lebedev's employees also rested together, and were going on vacation together, although there were no holidays in 1997 and 1998.
But they went to Lebedev for barbecue. Ira talks about one of these trips almost as about the happiest day of her life. It seems to have been in the early spring of 1998. In any case, there was still snow. Five or six young financiers from Yukos were invited to Platon Lebedev's dacha, and Lebedev's secretary purposely called them all the day before, reading out to each one what food for the party should bring with him from Moscow. She had a list personally endorsed by the head of MENATEP, millionaire Platon Lebedev: “Onion, red - 2 kg. Lavash fresh, hot - 10 pcs." Ira was the only one without a car, and therefore Lebedev came to meet her at the Krylatskoye metro station.
Was he driving himself? - I ask.
He has always been driving himself. When the Yukos executives began to travel around with drivers and guards, and the security service insisted on the need for guards, Platon said: “Go to hell ... guys. I love to steer. I have traveled and will continue to travel.” I don't even know if he had security at all. In any case, I know Nevzlin's security chief, and I know Dubov's security chief, but I have no idea who Platon's security chief is.
Ira tells how they were driving along the Rublevsky highway, Lebedev merrily cursed about traffic jams and at the same time explained to the girl (Ira was 24 years old) that he had the best Lincoln Navigator car in the world, and that this Lincoln had such a special device that allows the car to climb mountains at an angle of 45 degrees.
- He that - I ask - climbed on his "Lincoln" in the mountains?
- I don’t know, - Ira laughs. - In any case, he knew that he had such a “crap” in his car.
Then they drove to Zhukovka to the market near the Tsarskaya Okhota restaurant, and Lebedev announced that he was proud of his acquaintance with his grandmother, who sells the best pickled cucumbers and the best pickled mushrooms on the market. Then they chose the meat for the barbecue. Lebedev said: “You young people should not be allowed to choose meat, you don’t understand anything about meat.” And I got a whole mountain of shashlik.
Then they arrived at the dacha and immediately began to lay out snacks on a huge table: pickled red garlic, wild garlic, the famous pickles and pickled mushrooms from a magical grandmother.
- Just don't think, - says Ira, - that it was some kind of feast during the plague. Of course, we had a crisis, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, but we really
We knew for sure that we could solve any problem.
- Were there servants? - I'm asking.
- What servant? All by themselves. Vodka appeared in misted bottles. The youth began to roar. Lebedev put on a jacket and said: "You young people should not be allowed near the barbecue." And went out to the yard to the barbecue. Five minutes later, the young people saw through the window that Lebedev was talking at the barbecue with Yukos co-owner Vladimir Dubov, who just came to visit like a neighbor.

They had a hostel right there, - Irina smiles. - They saw each other at work every day, and even lived in the same village. Horror. You go out in the morning, Khodorkovsky runs around. You come in the evening, Khodorkovsky is walking. You can go crazy.
The fun immediately subsided. For some reason, unlike Lebedev, young financiers revered Dubov as superiors and could not make a fuss in the presence of Dubov. "Let's watch the video, shall we?" someone suggested. A quarter of an hour later, when Lebedev and Dubov, holding skewers with barbecue in both hands like a fan, entered the house, the youth sat sedately on the sofa and watched the video.
In 1998, when the crisis happened and the bank went bankrupt, it was Platon Lebedev who was responsible for paying off all shareholders and depositors. And paid off. At the beginning of the 2000s, when it became clear that it was more profitable for Yukos to produce oil on a rotational basis than to feed polar cities, it was Platon Lebedev who figured out how to force workers to leave their homes: Yukos distributed its shares to everyone who agreed to move. The workers were given about 10%. Theoretically, when you sell so many shares so quickly, the capitalization of the company should fall. But the capitalization did not fall, on the contrary, the shares began to rise in price at the very time when they were distributed to the workers, and this is thanks to Platon Lebedev.
- Platon Leonidovich, - says Ira, - he's really a brilliant manager. He can organize people for anything. He can make people all work like hell. Or maybe make them relax and have fun like crazy. In a professional sense, Plato was then a god to me, and at work I felt reverent awe towards him. And on barbecue with him it was easy and fun.
“You know what, Volodya,” Lebedev said to Dubov, “you come in, or something, later, and that young people here lined up for your arrival and took it under the visor.”
“Yeah,” Dubov reluctantly put his kebabs on a dish. “I’ll go and bring you sliced ​​meats.”

As soon as Dubov left, it became fun again. After the barbecue, the men went to the bathhouse. After the bath they threw out into the street to play football. After football, Lebedev's son began to ride the guests on a snowboard, and Lebedev made sure that the boy must fill up each of the guests in a snowdrift.
“Aunt Ira, how old are you?” - the boy asked when it was Irina's turn to ride.
"Twenty-four." - "You are quite young. Can I just call you Ira and not on “you”, but on “you”? - "You can." - "Ira, I really like you, I won't knock you over in the snow."
At that very moment, seeing that everyone was already lying in a snowdrift and only Platon Lebedev remained unrolled, one of the young financiers (Chief Accountant of Yukos, by the way) fled and tried to throw Lebedev into the snow. But Lebedev dodged it and with some kind of wrestling trick (Ira says it was very beautiful) threw his chief accountant into the snow. While the accountant was flying, his glasses fell off, and Lebedev, having carried out his reception, stumbled a little and accidentally trampled on his glasses. “I have minus five,” the chief accountant laughed, wallowing in the snow, “now you will lead me by the hands and feed me all evening.”
I'm asking:
How long did this happy time last?
Ira says:
- Until 2001. By 2001, we cleared the company. From any dirt. From any gangster suckers. It has become almost a straight Western company, transparent and boring. Life got better, but the drive was gone. I left Plato, we did not communicate for several years. And I regret it terribly. Of all of us, in my opinion, only Plato managed to keep the drive to the end, until the very arrest.
Lawyer Anton Drel says that the first time Platon Lebedev received a call from the prosecutor's office in January 2003. The call was completely peaceful. The investigator apologized for the concern, assured that there were no and could not be any claims against Lebedev personally, but that the prosecutor's office was simply investigating the case of LogoVAZ, which belonged to Boris Berezovsky. In the 1990s, Bank MENATEP, headed by Lebedev, gave something like LogoVAZ a loan, so wouldn't Platon Leonidovich agree to tell you something about that loan?
- Can we come and talk to you? - asked the investigator.
- Well, come, - answered Lebedev. - True, I don’t remember about the loan to LogoVAZ. Maybe they did. To whom only we did not give loans then. Come, I'll tell you what I remember.
I hung up the phone, called the lawyer Anton Drel, asked him to come and be present at this friendly conversation with the investigator. The conversation was indeed quite friendly. Drill says that the investigator asked all sorts of nonsense. Like, does Platon Leonidovich remember who came from Berezovsky to ask for a loan? Does not remember. Does Platon Leonidovich know Berezovsky personally? familiar. After asking questions for about forty minutes, the investigator said:
- Can I not draw up a protocol of interrogation now, but then I will draw it up at work and send it to you for you to sign?
- You can, - said Lebedev.
That was the end of the matter. For five months, the prosecutor's office did not send any protocol for signing. Lebedev had already forgotten about him. But in mid-June (around the same time that Pichugin was arrested, apparently, the Yukos case was being promoted simultaneously from different directions), the investigator suddenly called again:
- Platon Leonidovich, the protocol still needs to be signed. Only can you come to us and sign with us?
The next day, Lebedev and Drel went to the prosecutor's office, signed the protocol, and the investigator casually asked Lebedev to literally drop in on investigator Karimov for a minute.
It is now from prison that Platon Lebedev writes complaints to investigator Karimov, beginning the letter with the words: “To the head of an organized anti-constitutional criminal group Karimov” and signing “I have the honor of Platon Lebedev,” and then Lebedev had nothing against talking with Karimov. Karimov suddenly said:
- We have information that you are hiding the teller who issued the loan to LogoVAZ.
- Am I hiding? roared Lebedev, as usual, but restrained himself.
the prosecutor's office cannot find the girl-operator who is hiding from the investigation and does not appear for interrogations, I will help you find her.
By the way, I found it. A few days later, it turned out that the girl-operator who had issued a loan to LogoVAZ at MENATEP had long since quit MENATEP and now works at Sberbank.
- And what, - continued Karimov, - what was there with bills during the crisis?
- Does it have anything to do with the case? Anton Drel was wary.
- It has.
Anton Drel says that after these words, Platon Lebedev gave prosecutors a very interesting lecture about the crisis and finances, about how, why, and why bills appeared after the crisis. Anton says:
- I think he was arrested because of this lecture. The investigators thought that Lebedev was ready to talk and could explain to them a lot of things that they themselves do not understand.
They seem to think that if a person willingly undertakes to explain something to them, it means that he has spoken, he is injecting himself.
But Lebedev did not speak. He is just interested in talking about finance, he is a good financier.
From mid-June, Platon Lebedev began to be summoned from time to time to the prosecutor's office and interrogated as a witness. Not a single summons, that is, not a single document obliging a citizen to appear for interrogation, was issued. They called from the prosecutor's office, Lebedev came. The last time they called at the end of June and asked to come on July 2 at 10.00. There was no notice. Lebedev agreed to come to the prosecutor's office on July 2 at 10:00, but he was not obliged to come.
And on July 1, on the eve of a visit to the prosecutor's office, Lebedev became ill with his heart. He was taken by ambulance to Vishnevsky's hospital, the nearest hospital to his home.
On June 2, at 10 am, lawyer Anton Drel came to the prosecutor's office to say that his client fell ill, that in a couple of days it would become clear whether the client would be discharged soon, and then you could call and agree when Lebedev would come for interrogation.
- The investigator yelled at me, - says Anton, - can you imagine? He yelled at me and poked me: “Where is your Lebedev? He spits on us, your Lebedev! You have plundered the country! Where are you hiding it? I tried to explain that I didn’t even know which hospital Lebedev had been taken to, that I would find out everything within a day and let you know when he was released. But the investigator did not listen. I simply wrote out a summons to Lebedev for tomorrow, June 3rd. This was the first order. I hoped to talk to Plato and persuade him to appear on this agenda.
On the evening of the same day, that is, on June 2, Platon Lebedev was arrested in the hospital ward, on the grounds that he, they say, was hiding from the investigation.
It was later at the trial that Platon Lebedev said that more than twelve hours remained before the interrogation time indicated on the agenda, and why the hell did the prosecutor's office invent that he did not appear for interrogations. It was later at the trial that Platon Lebedev said that it was stupid to think that he could run away, because two weeks before his arrest his daughter was born, and what kind of a normal man would run away from a two-week-old baby? How do prosecutors imagine it? Or are there no normal men among prosecutors? This is later in court. And then, on the evening of June 2, Platon Lebedev was not able to say a word and did not even understand what they were saying to him.
Lawyer Anton Drel says that in the evening he arrived at the prosecutor's office, where they tried to interrogate the arrested Platon Lebedev. Lebedev was sitting on a chair, rocking softly and bellowing.
- He had high blood pressure, - says Anton Drel. - He only realized that there was no need to say anything at all. He was given some pills, but the pills didn't seem to help.
Anton says that either at the first interrogation, or at one of the subsequent interrogations, one young investigator tried to talk to Platon Lebedev:
- Platon Leonidovich, why are you offended? I understand that you are offended by Karimov, but we are Russian Orthodox people, let's talk.
On July 2, Platon Lebedev's former subordinate Irina had a birthday. She rented a room in the restaurant "Martel" on Chayanov Street and invited friends. Many of Irina's friends worked for Yukos. Among those invited was Khodorkovsky's assistant Tatiana Chuvaeva. So the holiday began a long time ago, but all the friends from Yukos, as if on cue, were late. Ira says that Tatyana Chuvaeva arrived closer to the night. Ira says she didn't have a face. She handed Ira flowers, a gift and said:
- Hello. Congratulations. Plato was arrested.
Silence reigned in the hall. Ira says that her world turned before her eyes. Having recovered a little, the guests began to drink silently and quickly. Ira says that after an hour and a half they drank all the alcohol in the restaurant, trying to get tipsy as soon as possible. And when they nevertheless got tipsy, a certain man named Maxim, a former colleague of Irin and Platon Lebedev, said:
- In vain they are so - did he mean the prosecutor's office, the authorities, the Kremlin, the president? - They will regret it. We did not solve such problems!
Ira claims that she answered then:
- No, Max, we have never solved such problems.
This time we will lose.
Ira says that she returned home and waited for a call. And a few days later, someone from Yukos called Ira (Ira does not say who) and asked to leave the country so that the prosecutor's office would not have a desire to interrogate Ira in the case of Platon Lebedev.
Ten days later, Ira left for London.
And on July 2, Khodorkovsky paced his office like a tiger in a cage, waiting for the time when someone from the government or the presidential administration would receive him late at night. He walked and said:
- I will never forgive myself that Plato was arrested.
People who know Mikhail Khodorkovsky intimately
they say that on the night after Lebedev's arrest, Khodorkovsky was received by Prime Minister Kasyanov. Kasyanov allegedly said that he had gone to see President Putin, and the president seemed to have ordered to pass on: “Let Khodorkovsky not worry. This is not a political order. Some of the oligarchs paid the prosecutor's office to attack Lebedev. The oligarchs are squabbling among themselves. They'll figure it out, they'll let you out."
There were several well-known journalists in Khodorkovsky's office that night, whose names I cannot name. And they didn't believe Khodorkovsky at the time, as if the president really could say that: "a political order", "paid the prosecutor's office." Some time later, these journalists met with Prime Minister Kasyanov, and he, off the record, of course, seemed to confirm that he really had such a conversation with the president, and indeed, as if the president, as a matter of course, spoke about the possibility of a political order and the corruption of the prosecutor's office: “Let Khodorkovsky not worry. This is not a political order. Some of the oligarchs paid the prosecutor's office to attack Lebedev. The oligarchs are squabbling among themselves. They'll figure it out, they'll let you out."
In the very first days after Lebedev's arrest, people from Yukos talked to Roman Abramovich. They asked if Abramovich, using his connections in the Kremlin, could talk to the president and help free Lebedev. Abramovich seemed to have said that he would not talk to the president about Lebedev, he was afraid.
In our entire history, the only person who seems to have never been afraid is Platon Lebedev. He did not cooperate with the investigation. He wrote impudent letters to the prosecutor's office. He told state prosecutors in court when they tried to interrogate him: “I don’t want to talk to you, you are criminals, you falsified this case, you lied.” He also held out in prison. He was not given medication to the prison. He was transferred from the prison hospital to a general cell. They put him in a punishment cell. He continued to hold on.
On the second day after his arrest, lawyer Anton Drel received permission to visit his client Platon Lebedev in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. When the lawyer entered the visiting chamber, Lebedev first asked:
- Which of the guys still took?
He was quite sure that it was not just him who had been arrested, but all or almost all of the Yukos shareholders. In the end, he turned out to be right. From the very day of his arrest, Lebedev had no illusions that he could get out, make concessions, or, as Khodorkovsky writes, kneel down. From the very first day in prison, Lebedev was sure that not only he, but also his comrades would be ground to powder controlled by the prosecutor's office, the court, the law enforcement system. And the only thing, Platon Lebedev was sure, that remains is to adequately accept captivity and, perhaps, death.
In this sense, the words of Khodorkovsky, written to me from prison, “I could not leave Plato” express a tragic feeling - friendship.
It is known about Khodorkovsky that when he became rich, he always tried to get his school and college friends to work in MENA-TEP or in YUKOS. Khodorkovsky seems to have some atavistic notion of friendship from Soviet songs like "There were two friends in our regiment, sing a song, sing ...".
I re-read Khodorkovsky's letter and think that friendship, a concept not accepted in modern politics and modern business, explains a lot. Would you like to know why Khodorkovsky did not run away, but went to prison? He couldn't leave a friend. He considered it his duty to share the fate of a friend who intended to adequately accept captivity and, perhaps, death. How do you like this explanation?
I am writing these words on August 24, 2005. Either for the fact that Khodorkovsky writes too many articles for newspapers from prison, or simply for impudence and refusal to go for a walk, Platon Lebedev was placed in the punishment cell of the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. In terms of area, this punishment cell is approximately the same as Lebedev's beloved Lincoln. There, in the punishment cell, Platon Lebedev, a lover of pickled cucumbers, mushrooms and barbecue, is not given food or water.
And for the third day today, as a sign of solidarity with his friend, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is on a dry hunger strike in prison.
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