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After Putin: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on his Vision for a New Russia

Foreign
Policy

Does Russia need another revolution? Can Putin’s regime survive Covid, economic hardship and a decline in geopolitical influence?

Few people have had the opportunity to confront Vladimir Putin in person about corruption inside the Kremlin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky did just that – and he paid the price. Khodorkovsky went from being the richest man in Russia with an estimated fortune of $15 billion to a prisoner, charged with tax evasion and fraud. An early supporter of democratic change in Russia, Khodorkovsky was given a ten-year prison sentence mere months after he criticised Putin during a televised meeting. Amnesty International declared Khodorkovsky a prisoner of conscience and the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the seizure of his oil company by the Russian government was a violation of international law. After his release from prison in 2013, Khodorkovsky emigrated to Switzerland and now lives in London.

In October 2020 Khodorkovsky came to Intelligence Squared to discuss his new book, Gardariki, which presents his ideas on how to create the ‘Russia of [his] dreams’. As Russians come to terms with the prospect of Putin being a possible president-for-life, Khodorkovsky set out his alternative vision for the country: a strong and just state, based on the model of a parliamentary republic and committed to upholding human rights, free and fair elections, and the rule of law. 

Does Russia need another revolution? Can Putin’s regime survive Covid, economic hardship and a decline in geopolitical influence? When ultimately Putin leaves office, what will follow? Khodorkovsky unpacks these issues and more with award-winning journalist Luke Harding.

Click here to read the English translation of Gardariki.

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After Putin: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on his Vision for a New Russia

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Speakers for the motion

  • Mikhail Khodorkovsky

    Exiled Russian dissident and author of the new book The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell For Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It

Chair

  • Luke Harding

    Award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian and author

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Exiled Russian dissident and author of the new book The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell For Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It

Exiled Russian dissident and founder of Open Russia, a movement committed to promoting democratic reform in Russia. He was formerly head of YUKOS, Russia's largest private oil company and the country's richest man. He was arrested in 2003 and imprisoned on charges of tax evasion and fraud, charges which he denied and vigorously defended. Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and finally released after ten years in December 2013. He is the author of the new book The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell For Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It.
Chair

Luke Harding

Award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian and author

Foreign correspondent at The Guardian. Between 2007 and 2011 he was The Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief. The Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. His latest book is Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West. He is also the author of Collusion (a New York Times #1 bestseller), A Very Expensive Poison, The Snowden Files and Mafia State, as well as the co-author of WikiLeaks and The Liar (nominated for the Orwell Prize).

 

Speakers subject to change.