Jusitfication to the nomination of Mikhail Khodorkovsky

On Monday, 30 september 2013, members of the European Parliament vote on three finalists for EP´s Sakharov Prize 2013. As an unbroken fighter for democracy, the rule of law and the social market economy in Russia Mikhail Khodorkovsky truly deserves the prize.

----------------------------------------

"I am far from being an ideal person, but I am a person with an idea. For me, as for anybody, it is hard to live in prison, and I do not want to die there. But if I have to – I will not falter. What I believe in is worth dying for." (From Khodorkovsky's closing statement, 2 November 2010)

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been in detention for 10 years. He was sentenced to a total of 14 years imprisonment in two politically motivated trails. The well known legal expert and trial observer Prof. Otto Luchterhandt has written: "The second judgement against Khodorkovsky far surpasses the first in arbitrariness and maliciousness. It is a disturbing document of the cynical perversion of the law, its open mockery." The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the first trail against him was not fair; it has yet to issue its verdict on the second.

In the course of the privatization so dear to President Yeltsin's heart and implemented at such a breath-taking pace, Mikhail Khodorkovsky built up the successful, modern and transparently run YUKOS petroleum company. President Putin first set his sights on Khodorkovsky when the latter began promoting the development of democracy and civil society in Russia through political and social activism and his projects – the Open Russia Foundation, the New Civilisation movement, the Federation of Internet Education and Schools of Public Policy – and his support of democratic parties. Unlike other oligarchs, he was unwilling to accept the alternatives on offer: submission or flight abroad. In February of 2003, he publically called President Putin and his team to account for the systemic corruption in his country. Afterwards, Khodorkovsky was arrested, his company broken up and taken over by the Kremlin's ROSNEFT.

Khodorkovsky did not see the bars and barbed wire as restricting and confining, though: like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, he viewed them as a broadening experience. A flood of articles, letters and interviews issued from his prison cell, pieces pointing a way forward towards a democratic and social Russia. A Russia founded on the EU's fundamental values. He responded to President Medvedev's hollow promise of modernization with the essay "Generation M" (M=modernization), pointing out that if the much needed modernization is to succeed social reforms will be needed as well as scientific and technical advances. That is predicated upon free people capable of independent thought. Which, in turn, requires respect for the constitution and the guarantee of civil rights and militates against the so called "managed democracy". In his idea 2020, he set forth a design for a modern European country featuring both a democratic constitutional state and a social market economy. Free from oppression, bureaucratic despotism, corruption and lawlessness. Central to his vision is the legitimization of privatization, generally perceived as unfair, through the introduction of an appropriate windfall tax. Linked to that is the establishment of a social welfare system which would reflect Russia's historical and psychological traditions.

Khodorkovsky is a political prisoner of Putin, who has recently accused him publically of murder. Putin is now having a third criminal case prepared against Khodorkovsky, to put him behind bars for good.

Khodorkovsky's refusal to bend or break has long since rid him of the negative image of the oligarch. In the eyes of Russia's civil society he has converted to the side of the good. This is evidenced by a letter from the winners of 2009 Sakharov Prize, who ask us to award this prize to Khodorkovsky for his unbroken political activism. He is a beacon of hope for the opposition and the developing civil society. A figure symbolizing the common struggle against the ruling autocracy, repression and despotism, who is striving for a modern, European, peaceful and democratic Russia. Awarding the prize to him should provide considerable impetus to those efforts and reduce the likelihood of Khodorkovsky being thrown in jail yet again.

Why should the EP award the Sakharov Prize to Mikhail Khodorkovsky?

• Because he has promoted the development of democracy and civil society in Russia through numerous activities and social projects, using his private fortune to do so.
• Because he had the courage to denounce the rampant corruption under President Putin, without regard to the personal consequences, and landed in prison on trumped up charges as a result.
• Because he stood up in court and steadfastly and persuasively demanded an independent judicial system and respect for the rule of law.
• Because he has proven himself to be a true patriot who places greater importance on the future of his country than his own wealth and wellbeing, in stark contrast to the nationalist rhetoric from the government and parliament.
• Because he has criticized the condition of the Russian state in countless pieces written from prison and proposed effective reforms.
• Because he has filled the hollow promise of modernization offered by President Medvedev with appropriate and targeted ideas and a mobilization of civil society forces.
• Because he tackled the issue of the largely unfair privatization of the Soviet economy and proposed the development of a social welfare system to overcome the extreme social gulf between rich and poor by imposing a windfall tax on the oligarchs.
• Because he has sketched out a path leading to a European, peaceful, modern and democratic Russia in his 2020 programme.
• Because his unbroken and exemplary stance has given others the courage to raise their own voices to protest the autocratic system.
• Because he represents a source of guidance and authority in the Russian opposition.
• Because the EU cannot stand silently by and watch him put on trial for a third time.
• Because he is a powerful advocate for understanding between Russia and the West and for a Europe-oriented Russia