From Outside Moscow, He Continues Opposing President Putin

WAMU 88.5

Published October 11, 2017 at 10:30 AM EDT

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of one of Russia's largest oil companies, holds a public meeting and press conference at Izolyatsia, a non-governmental arts foundation, on April 27, 2014 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Russia’s President turned 65 last week, but Vladimir Putin is not the retiring type. His term in office ends next year, but he’s widely expected to seek re-election and many expect he’ll win another six-year term.

Whilst President Putin was celebrating his birthday, Russian investigators raided the homes of at least five people working for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled oligarch who at one time owned the country’s biggest oil producer — Yukos.

Khodorkovsky was previously sent to prison by the Kremlin; he spent a decade behind bars. His trial was condemned as a sham and his sentence seen as a payback for his political ambitions. He now continues to oppose Putin, albeit from outside of Russia.

GUESTS

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Businessman; former president of Yukos energy company

William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author; professor of political science emeritus, Amherst College; author most recently of “Gorbachev: His Life and Times”

For more, visit http://the1a.org.