Russia | Exiled former oligarch Mihail Khodorkovsky is visiting Finland today

Russian former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky participates in a demonstration in Helsinki today, which is organized in connection with the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

The demonstration starts at Kansalaistor at 2 p.m. The event is organized by the Democratic Community of Russian-Speakers in Finland. During the two-year war, the community has demonstrated numerous times against the war.

“We have a campaign for Russians around the world to demonstrate against the war, Putin and the regime,” the chairman of the organization tells STT Irina Vesikko.

Khodorkovsky, who has lived in exile since 2013, is a well-known figure in the Russian administration and president Vladimir Putin critic.

In the year Born in 1963 in Moscow, Khodorkovsky became interested in politics and business at a young age. In the 1980s, he worked in a communist youth organization, through which he progressed into business life and became a computer importer.

At the end of the decade, Khodorkovsky founded the Menatep bank, which took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union by buying shares of privatized companies at a bargain price. Khodorkovsky, who took advantage of the situation, became a millionaire at the same time.

In the 1990s, Khodorkovsky bought the oil company Yukos, which grew into one of the largest oil companies in the country. the president of Russia Boris Yeltsin during the reign Khodorkovsky also advanced to the country's deputy minister of energy.

A millennium at the beginning, Khodorkovsky had become the richest man in Russia. His troubles began shortly after Putin became Russia's new president. In a televised debate, Khodorkovsky demanded that Putin eradicate official corruption, which caused friction between the two.

An outraged Putin ordered a criminal investigation into Khodorkovsky's dealings, and in 2003 he was arrested for the first time. According to Russian prosecutors, Khodorkovsky was guilty of extensive fraud and tax evasion. He himself characterized the official investigation as a political chase.

Two years later, Khodorkovsky was imprisoned for eight years. The punishment was continued in 2010, when Khodorkovsky was sentenced for stealing his company's oil.

Yukos, which made Khodorkovsky a billionaire, went bankrupt during his imprisonment, and parts of the company were sold to state-owned companies.

Putin pardoned him in 2013, but Khodorkovsky pleaded not guilty to economic crimes. After his release, he fled to Germany.

Khodorkovsky settled in London, from where he has moved from business life to a social influencer. Through the Open Russia movement he founded, Khodorkovsky was able to support Russian opposition politicians.

His financial position was helped by a decision by an Irish court in 2016, which released one hundred million euros of his money, which had been frozen due to embezzlement charges in Russia. After the decision, Khodorkovsky said that he would use part of the released funds for the activities of the Open Russia movement.

A year later, however, Russia banned the Open Russia movement, as the country's chief prosecutor declared the movement on the list of undesirable organizations. The Prosecutor General claimed that the move was a threat to the constitutional basis of the Russian Federation and the country's security.

Working for an unwanted organization in Russia can lead to fines or imprisonment. The Open Russia movement announced in May 2021 that it would stop its activities in order to prevent persecution of its members.

The Russian authorities have hampered the activities of media linked to Khodorkovsky. In 2021, a human rights organization associated with him and two media outlets announced they were shutting down after authorities blocked access to their websites.

Khodorkovsky has repeatedly criticized Russia's attack on Ukraine. In May 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice classified Khodorkovsky as a “foreign agent”. The ministry claimed he received funding from Ukraine.