Mikhail Khodorkovsky — oil / activist with roots in the USSR
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man — founder of Yukos, Russia's largest oil company — before Vladimir Putin had him arrested in 2003, imprisoned for 10 years, and his company destroyed. Released in 2013, he settled in London and became the most prominent and financially significant opponent of the Putin regime.
Tracing the roots — Moscow
Born in Moscow in 1963, Khodorkovsky built his fortune through Bank Menatep and Yukos during the post-Soviet privatisation. His arrest — coming after he funded opposition parties and criticized corruption — made him the defining symbol of Putin's war on independent Russian business. From London, he funds Open Russia and Russian opposition media.
Moscow. At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.
A career defined by ambition
"Putin is not Russia. Russia will be free."