Mikhail Khodorkovsky gave an interview to Moscow News

Moscow News' journalist Nadia Popova interviewed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former CEO of Yukos, via an exchange of written questions submitted through his lawyers on Sept. 5, 2008.

On Sept. 11 the inteview was issued in the newspaper. Khodorkovsky has been closely following the events in the dozens of publications he receives in his prison cell in the Chita region. Especially those that are connected with South Ossetia. In Kohodorkovsky's opinion, President Dmitry Medvedev acted appropriately on Georgia.

He said that the President had little choice but to invade after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force on Aug. 8. Khodorkovsky also backed Medvedev's decision on Aug. 26 to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

"It's evident that Saakashvili, counting on the support of the West, decided to launch a military venture without the sanction of the United States and overestimated the chances of gaining backing," he said.
Khodorkovsky previously has been reserved in his comments about Medvedev, and his lawyers earlier this year voiced hope that Medvedev's assent to the Kremlin would help facilitate the early release of their client. Khodorkovsky's supporters accuse former President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his eight-year imprisonment on fraud and tax charges and the state's takeover of his Yukos oil company in retaliation for his business and political ambitions.

Medvedev has indicated that he would not get involved, saying the case has to remain within the framework of the law.

A Chita court denied parole to Khodorkovsky last month, and his lawyers have appealed.
With Medvedev cementing his power in the Kremlin and Americans voting for a new president in November, there is an opportunity to salvage relations that have sunk to post-Cold War lows after the Georgia conflict, Khodorkovsky said.

"The coming change of presidential administration in the United States and the gradual building of the team holding power in Russia offer a great chance at a fresh start," said Khodorkovsky, once a regular guest at events at the U.S. ambassador's Spaso House residence in Moscow.

"I very much hope that we will not cast each other in the role of Evil Empire," he said.

On domestic issues, Khodorkovsky criticized a government drive to develop innovative technologies as insufficient and said foreign money investment alone would not solve the country's problems.

"I think that money is not the most important thing for Russia today -- there is more than enough of it," he said. "What is important is knowledge, markets and cooperation."

In his more than five years in prison, he has worked out his own economic and social development plan for Russian through 2020.