Jailed Russian tycoon Khodorkovsky launches book
Russian novelist and short-story writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya (L) attends a news conference presenting a new book called ''Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Articles. Dialogues. Interviews'' in Moscow January 20, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin
By Nikolai Isayev and Denis Dyomkin
MOSCOW | Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:15am IST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced last month to six more years, released his first book on Thursday to applause from well-known authors, who said many stores would be too scared to stock it.
"Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Articles. Discussions. Interviews" was penned by Russia's most high-profile prisoner and at one time its richest man during a jail term which started in 2003.
The book of observations on life, Russia, and what has happened to him carries a cover photograph of the bespectacled Khodorkovsky sitting behind bars with a wry smile.
"He is no longer the man who was arrested. He has gone through amazing inner changes in these years," said novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, who attended the launch alongside Khodorkovsky's parents.
"Not all bookshops will be eager to take it, and some are even scared," she said of the book, which is published by leading Russian publishing house EXMO.
Khodorkovsky was sentenced at the end of last year to stay in prison until late 2017 after what his supporters described as a politically charged theft and money-laundering trial. The Unites States has sharply criticised the decision.
The sentence has stoked accusations of selective justice and many analysts see the case as a political vendetta against an adversary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. President Dmitry Medvedev lashed out on Thursday at suggestions that he should somehow intervene.
"It boggles the mind! We will never be a law-abiding state if the president... must put pressure on a court," Medvedev told a public chamber meeting.
His mentor Putin said two weeks before his Dec. 30 sentencing that Khodorkovsky "must be in jail", drawing protests from his lawyers who said he had pressured the trial judge.
The Kremlin's top economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, admitted on Wednesday that the new verdict against Khodorkovsky could hurt Russia's business climate. The $1.2 trillion economy is recovering from the global crisis, with the Russian benchmark Urals oil price bouncing back close to the much-desired $100 a barrel.
Popular TV show host and reporter Leonid Parfyonov said Khodorkovsky's trial had become a key event in modern Russia's history. "It is a huge indicator, of all social and political processes in this country," he said at the book launch.
Khodorkovsky built a fortune by buying state assets cheaply following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but fell foul of the Kremlin during Putin's first term as president and was arrested in 2003 by armed security service agents.
