Mikhail Khodorkovsky
1963 – ? Russian oligarch, opposition figure
Once Russia's richest man, jailed for a decade after his Yukos oil empire challenged Putin.
- Affiliations
- Menatep, Yukos, Open Russia
Mikhail Khodorkovsky built the Menatep bank and used the loans-for-shares auctions to acquire the Yukos oil company, becoming Russia's richest man. As Yukos grew he began funding opposition parties and civil society, putting him on a collision course with the Kremlin. In 2003 he was arrested on his own plane, convicted of fraud and tax evasion in trials widely seen as political, and his company was hit with huge back-tax claims, broken up, and handed largely to the state firm Rosneft. He spent ten years in prison, was pardoned in 2013, and has campaigned against Putin from exile since.
Connections
- rival of Igor Sechin — His Rosneft took over the assets of the broken-up Yukos.
- rival of Igor Sechin — The Putin aide whose Rosneft absorbed the assets of the dismantled Yukos.
- rival of Vladimir Putin — Had the oligarch jailed after he funded opposition and challenged the Kremlin.
- rival of Vladimir Putin — Jailed after funding opposition and defying the Kremlin.
In the timeline
- 1995 Yukos oil company acquired by Khodorkovsky's Menatep the acquirer
- 1995 Khodorkovsky's Menatep group wins Yukos in loans-for-shares auction mentioned
- 2003 Khodorkovsky funds opposition parties the funder
- 2003 Khodorkovsky arrested the arrested oligarch
- 2003 Mikhail Khodorkovsky arrested central figure
- 2005 Khodorkovsky convicted at first trial the convicted defendant
- 2006 Yukos declared bankrupt and liquidated the former owner
- 2010 Khodorkovsky convicted at second trial the convicted defendant
- 2013 Khodorkovsky pardoned and released the pardoned prisoner