As long as Putin rules Russia and Khodorkovsky continues to act like Khodorkovsky, Khodorkovsky will remain in prison-and Putin will remain terrified of him.
During his eight years in confinement, Khodorkovsky has become Russia’s most trusted public figure and Putin’s biggest political liability. Putin had Khodorkovsky arrested, completely miscalculating the consequences of putting him in prison. Almost a decade ago, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then the owner of the Yukos Oil Company and Russia’s richest man, completely miscalculated the consequences of standing up to Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s president. It is a story of malice, cruelty, and vengeance-but more than anything it is a story of a failure of imagination. His family, his friends, and most of his colleagues have stood by him, but the decisive relationship of his life remains the one with the first man. He has lost his business and most of his money. The other man has spent the past eight years behind bars, going for months without seeing the sky. Everywhere he goes, he is asked about the other man. He travels from world capital to world capital. The palace he built for himself sprawls over eight million square feet. One of the men has spent this time amassing impressive power and untold wealth. This is the story of two men who are central to each other’s lives, though they have neither met nor spoken in more than eight years.
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