BERLIN // Russia’s former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said yesterday after walking free from a decade in prison he would stay away from his homeland but help free political prisoners still behind bars in the country.
In an astonishing turn of events, the Kremlin critic surfaced in Germany hours after his release on Friday from a prison in an obscure corner of northern Russia, following a pardon by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Mr Khodorkovsky admitted he had been given no choice over his final destination and thanked the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, for aiding his liberation.
Mr Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia’s richest man, said he had no intention of becoming involved in Russian politics and could not return to the country so long as a court order for him to pay $550 million (Dh 2,020bn) in damages was still in place.
“A fight for power is not for me,” said Mr Khodorkovsky, wearing a sharp business suit but almost shaven-headed, at the news conference at the Berlin Wall museum at the symbolic Cold War location of Checkpoint Charlie.
He said he would focus his energies on helping political prisoners walk out of Russian jails. “I will do everything so that there are none left, do everything I can.”
He added that Western governments should “remember I am not the last political prisoner in Russia,” adding it would be wrong if he was seen as a “symbol” that there were no longer political prisoners in his country.
Rights groups are still seeking to secure the release of around a dozen protesters arrested for their role in a rally in 2012 on the eve of Mr Putin’s inauguration for a third term, who many see as political prisoners.
Mr Khodorkovsky’s co-accused, business partner and friend Platon Lebedev also remains behind bars.
The former chief executive and founder of the Yukos oil giant said he had no plans to return to business but had enough means to live on.
* Agence France-Presse
