A top foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who spent a decade behind bars told thousands on Kiev's main protest square Sunday that the Kremlin colluded with Ukraine's ousted regime in violence claiming 100 lives.
"I was told what the authorities did here. They did this with the agreement of the Russian leadership," former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodrkovsky said in an emotional address from a stage set up on Kiev's iconic Independence Square.
"I wanted to cry. It is terrifying. This is not my leadership."
The 50-year-old founder of the former Yukos oil empire -- its main holdings now in possession of the state -- was released from jail in December under an amnesty Putin signed in what was widely seen as an attempt to ease foreign criticism of his rights record ahead of February's Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man and an ambitious politician with presidential ambitions who openly opposed Putin when the former KGB spy first entered the Kremlin in 2000.
His 2003 arrest and subsequent convictions on fraud and embezzlement charges have been widely condemned by Kremlin critics as an effort by Putin to silence his most potent foe.
Khodorkovsky left Russia immediately after his release and has vowed not to return until the authorities drop old lawsuits against him worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
He had spent most of his time since his release in Western Europe and has vowed to stay out of Russian politics.
But Khodorkovsky arrived in Kiev late Saturday for a tour of central parts of the city where 100 people died during three months of protests that eventually toppled president Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Kremlin regime.
Khodorkovsky's voice shook and his lips at one stage quivered as he told the receptive crowd he was deeply shocked by the violence that has gripped the ex-Soviet state.
"I want you to know -- there is a different Russia. There are people who despite the arrests, despite the long years they have spent in prison, go to anti-war demonstrations in Moscow," Khodorkovsky said in reference to the dozens arrested last week near the Kremlin during a protest against Russia's de facto seisure of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
"There are people for whom the friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian people is stronger than their own freedom," he said. "I believe that Russia and Ukraine have a united, common European future."
Khodorkovsky is due to give a public lecture at a Kiev university on Monday but has not formally scheduled any meetings with the new pro-EU interim leadership that replaced Yanukovych last month.
A top foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who spent a decade behind bars told thousands on Kiev’s main protest square Sunday that the Kremlin colluded with Ukraine’s ousted regime in violence claiming 100 lives.
“I was told what the authorities did here. They did this with the agreement of the Russian leadership,” former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodrkovsky said in an emotional address from a stage set up on Kiev’s iconic Independence Square.
“I wanted to cry. It is terrifying. This is not my leadership.”
The 50-year-old founder of the former Yukos oil empire — its main holdings now in possession of the state — was released from jail in December under an amnesty Putin signed in what was widely seen as an attempt to ease foreign criticism of his rights record ahead of February’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Khodorkovsky was once Russia’s richest man and an ambitious politician with presidential ambitions who openly opposed Putin when the former KGB spy first entered the Kremlin in 2000.
His 2003 arrest and subsequent convictions on fraud and embezzlement charges have been widely condemned by Kremlin critics as an effort by Putin to silence his most potent foe.
Khodorkovsky left Russia immediately after his release and has vowed not to return until the authorities drop old lawsuits against him worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
He had spent most of his time since his release in Western Europe and has vowed to stay out of Russian politics.
But Khodorkovsky arrived in Kiev late Saturday for a tour of central parts of the city where 100 people died during three months of protests that eventually toppled president Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Kremlin regime.
Khodorkovsky’s voice shook and his lips at one stage quivered as he told the receptive crowd he was deeply shocked by the violence that has gripped the ex-Soviet state.
“I want you to know — there is a different Russia. There are people who despite the arrests, despite the long years they have spent in prison, go to anti-war demonstrations in Moscow,” Khodorkovsky said in reference to the dozens arrested last week near the Kremlin during a protest against Russia’s de facto seisure of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
“There are people for whom the friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian people is stronger than their own freedom,” he said. “I believe that Russia and Ukraine have a united, common European future.”
Khodorkovsky is due to give a public lecture at a Kiev university on Monday but has not formally scheduled any meetings with the new pro-EU interim leadership that replaced Yanukovych last month.
