The headline is huge: As part of an amnesty bill, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, many high profile prisoners could be set free as early as this week. The list of those included in the amnesty appears to include the two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot, as well as the Greenpeace activists arrested for boarding a Russian oil platform in August. The list also may include some, but perhaps not all, of the protesters arrested for “riots” in Bolotnaya Square in 2012, and now Putin’s political opponent and oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [1. Full disclosure — The Interpreter is a special project of the Institute of Modern Russia, a non-profit organization whose president is Pavel Khodorkovsky, son of Mikhail Khodorkovsky].
The total list of those affected by the amnesty bill is not clear, nor are many other details such as the timelines for release of the various prisoners. Because the final bill has not yet been passed, and because it could free between 20,000 and 22,000 people, the specifics of the bill are hard to parse at this point. We will be updating this article as more information becomes available.
Also see our newest podcast where our managing editor James Miller discusses this development with Professor Matt Sienkiewicz of Boston College.
UPDATES
1911 GMT: Several huge developments today. Pussy Riot is free, Nadiya Tolokonnikova has given her first interview, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky has also given an interview. Pussy Riot vowed to continue to fight for human rights, and Khodorkovsky said that he will return to Russia. Read them both:
- Pussy Riot Speaks: Interview With Nadiya Tolokonnikova
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky: “I Will Return to Russia”
Friday, December 20, 2013
1955 GMT: The New York Times is carrying statements from Russian officials that clarify a few issues regarding Mikhail Khodorkovsky. First, according to a spokeswoman for Russia’s prison system, Khodorkovsky voluntarily went to Russia to visit his mother who is receiving medial treatment there. Also, according to Putin’s Press Secretary, Dmitri Peskov, Khodorkovsky can return to Russia at any time:
Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said on Friday that Mr. Khodorkovsky had sent two letters, one longer and personal, and the second a formal request for a pardon. He specifically asked permission to fly to Germany, Mr. Peskov told reporters.
President Putin had considered the request and decided to grant it, Mr. Peskov said, adding that there were no restrictions on Mr. Khodorkovsky returning to Russia.
1914 GMT: The independent newspaper The New times has spoken to
Mikhail Khodorkovsk and has posted this transcript our translator Pierre Vaux has provided below:
While speaking with our editorial staff, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said:
“Now, after 10 years, the sensation of freedom is unbelievable. I am grateful to you, and everyone who has supported me all this time. There is still a great deal ahead of us, the release of those hostages who remain in prison, first of all, Platon Lebedev. I love all of you, I am happy. Right now the most important thing is Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.”
1720 GMT: Kommersant has published an article entitled “Mikhail Khodorkovsky Surrenders to Pardon” which claims that FSB officers pressured Khodorkovsky by telling him about illnesses in his family, and by scaring him with the threat of additional charges:
The impression was created that Khodorkovsky was being pressured, including through the media, toward making some decision, by threatening him otherwise with new criminal prosecution.
In recent days, Kommersant sources say that intelligence officers had a conversation with Khodorkovsky in which they told him about the worsening condition of his mother, who is suffering from cancer, and about a new criminal case, which was just about to be opened. This conversation, which took place without lawyers, is what forced Khodorkovsky to appeal to the president.
Read our translation of the article here.
1630 GMT: William Browder, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, who played a key role in the events that led to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, has published a statement about Khodorkovsky’s release, a statement that says echoes Amnesty International’s sentiments which were published yesterday:
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was freed today by his hostage takers after being kept 10 years in captivity at the personal direction of Vladimir Putin.
I can’t imagine the duress he must have suffered by his false imprisonment and I’m delighted and relieved for him and his family that he is finally free.
But we shouldn’t forget that Putin stole ten years of a man’s life for a political vendetta.
We shouldn’t forget that Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vasily Aleksenian died at the age of 39 after being falsely arrested in the same vindictive case and was deliberately refused medical care while he was dying, to try to get him to testify against Khodorkovsky.
We also shouldn’t forget about the thousands of other people who have been taken hostage and abused by corrupt Russian law enforcement officials, like Sergei Magnitsky who was tortured to death in police custody after exposing a corruption scheme run by senior Russian officials.
Cheap public relations tactics to promote Putin’s Sochi Olympics don’t substitute for real justice and the victims whose lives were ruined and continue to be ruined by the Putin regime.
1619 GMT: This is the first picture that has been released on Mikhail Khodorkovsky after he has landed in Germany. That is Alexander Rahr, the publicist, in the background, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany’s former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor, shaking hands with Khodorkovsky.
First picture #Khodorkovski pic.twitter.com/VtoIerexI1
— Elena Servettaz (@EServettaz) December 20, 2013
1608 GMT: We have received an official statement from Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now free and in Germany:
Dear friends,
On November 12, I asked the President of Russia to pardon me due to my family situation, and I am glad his decision was positive.
The issue of admission of guilt was not raised.
I would like to thank everyone who has been following the Yukos case all these years for the support you provided to me, my family and all those who were unjustly convicted and continue to be persecuted. I am very much looking forward to the minute when I will be able to hug my close ones and personally shake hands with all my friends and associates.
I am constantly thinking of those who continue to remain imprisoned.
My special thanks is to Mr. Hans-Dietrich Genscher for his personal participation in my fate.
First of all I am going to repay my debt to my parents, my wife and my children, and I am very much looking forward to meeting them.
I will welcome the opportunity to celebrate this upcoming holiday season with my family. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
1501 GMT: Mikhail Khodorkovsky has landed in Germany after being released from his Siberian prison earlier today.
1423 GMT: The Interpreter has received a copy of the pardon of Mickhail Khodorkovsky. It reads:
Decree
Of the President of Russian Federation
On pardon of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky.
Following humanitarian principles, I rule:
To pardon convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, born in 1963, Moscow. Freeing him from further serving of the punishment in the form of imprisonment.
Decree shall enter into force on the date of signing.
1405 GMT: Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been released from prison and is currently in Moscow, according to the Associated Press:
Khodorkovsky’s father tells the AP he and his wife are in Moscow and are going to Germany tomorrow per @lauraphylmills .
— Nataliya Vasilyeva (@NatVasilyevaAP) December 20, 2013
There is no confirmation of this news yet, and there have been conflicting reports on the subject.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
2110 GMT: The Russian state-owned TV station RT has overdubbed a translation of the comments by Putin regarding the pardoning of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and have provided their own analysis:
1939 GMT: No update yet on the fate of the “Arctic 30,” the Greenpeace activists who are still in custody. Some of the protesters said that they could be home by Christmas, however.
Putin, at his press conference, did not specifically accuse Greenpeace, but did mention the incident. According to him, the protesters may have had ulterior motives, and may have been paid to do what they did in order to hurt the Russian Federation. RIA Novosti reports:
“Why is it done? Either to pressure a company and get sustenance from them, or fulfil someone’s order to disrupt shelf exploration – in this case, [exploration by] the Russian Federation,” Putin said about environmental protests .
1903 GMT: USA Today is running a story that says that the imprisoned Pussy Riot members are free and have been released from prison. This is simply not accurate. The Interpreter’s Pierre Vaux has been monitoring developments outside and inside the prison. According to a Twitter account that is outside Nadya Tolokonnikova’s prison, and someone who has spoken to Maria Alyokhina, it is likely that Pussy Riot may be released tomorrow.
TT @tariya coming from jail of #pussyriot Masha #Alyokhina, she is confident she’ll be released tomorrow. (cont) http://t.co/vyjPbLrAHT
— kriszta satori (@fulelo) December 19, 2013
This information is approximately three hours old, which is slightly more recent that the USA Today report, which cites “Reuters” as their source. However, Reuters has run no such report. We believe that the USA Today report has misunderstood statements from Vladimir Putin that appear to confirm that Pussy Riot will soon be freed.
As far as Putin;s statements are concerned, he said that the behavior of Pussy Riot was disgraceful, but they would be released anyway:
“I was not sorry that they (the Pussy Riot members) ended up behind bars,” Putin said. “I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behaviour, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women.”
“They went beyond all boundaries,” he said.
Putin also said that the amnesty was not about Pussy Riot, or Greenpeace.
1815 GMT: There are several developments regarding the Bolotnaya protesters. Yesterday it appeared that, according to RT, at least 9 of the protesters would be released. At today’s press conference, Putin said that it was up to the courts to determine whether the protesters should get amnesty, but no one who injured a police officer should be let go.
It appears that the courts have already started to act. At this point some of the prisoners have already been convicted, but others have ongoing trials. The trials of four members have been stopped after a Moscow court decided that the defendants are part of the amnesty:
According to the ruling of Judge Natalia Nikishina, suspects Maria Baronova, Nikolai Kavkazsky, Leonid Kovyazin and Vladimir Akimenkov have been pardoned, the Interfax correspondent reported. Akimenkov and Kovyazin have been released in the court hall.
The trials for eight more defendants, however, will continue, as they are accused of using violence. We haven’t found news yet on the remaining Bolotnaya prisoners.
Coincidentally, The Moscow Times reports that an international public commission on the May 2012 “Bolotnaya Riots” has concluded that there were no riots at all. According to the commission, there was a peaceful protest that was attacked by riot police (OMON), and the “riots” started during the time that the police were attacking the crowd.
The commission consists of seven independent experts from six countries — Britain, the U.S., Poland, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — four of whom are members of the Panel of Experts on Freedom of Assembly at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The experts studied more than 200 documents and more than 50 hours of video from open sources and provided by witnesses and organizers to reconstruct the course of events at the Bolotnaya rally in detail, said the 74-page report distributed at Wednesday’s news conference.
The two experts from the commission, speaking at the office of the Memorial human rights group in downtown Moscow in the presence of about two dozen Russian and foreign reporters, accused Russian police of provoking sporadic violence at the rally by their “unprofessional” actions.
While there were provocateurs in the crowd, they were not characteristic of the behavior of the crowd and were used as an excuse to trigger police brutality, according to the report.
1442 GMT: We awake to some surprising news. Vladimir Putin, at a pre-planned three hour press conference, has made several surprising announcements. The biggest headline so far, however, is that Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned oil tycoon, will now be freed.
According to the BBC, Putin said that he had not received a letter from Khodorkovsky asking for pardon until now.
“And then quite recently he wrote such a document and addressed a request for a pardon to me,” Mr Putin said.
“He has already been in detention more than 10 years, this is a serious punishment and he is referring to humanitarian circumstances as his mother is ill.”
“I think given the circumstances we can take the decision and very soon the decree to pardon him will be signed,” Mr Putin said.
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the letter was personally signed by Khodorkovsky, but Khodorkovky’s lawyer says that there was no letter, though letters on behalf of his client have been written by others over the course of the years.
Just yesterday, many news outlets, including Bloomberg and The Moscow Times, were convinced that Khodorkovsky would not be pardoned. Everyone, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s own son, Pavel, who spoke to CNN yesterday, were surprised by today’s announcement.
But will Khodorkovsky really be free? Our translator Catherine Fitzpatrick notes that the statements were made in a side conversation after the press conference. Putin references humanitarian concerns (Mikhail’s mother is ill). In the Open Newsroom, she added that the pardon could have attached conditions:
A pardon could involve an admission of guilt, which MBK has never wanted to make, and it could involve a pledge not to continue the “criminal activity”. We don’t know yet whether he wrote such a document or that it says any of those things. A pardon would most certainly involve a pledge not to engage in political activity.
In other words, Khodorkovsky may not have written a letter, so may have to admit guilt based on a letter someone else wrote in order to accept the pardon. It’s not clear.
As I mentioned yesterday, there is considerable uncertainty about who will be released, when, and on what grounds. And this development proves that Putin is unpredictable, and some of the information that reliable media organizations were running with is just wrong. In other words, we just may not know who is free until they are actually free.
Wednesday, December 18th, 2013:
2120 GMT: The liberal magazine Snob.ru has collected quotes on today’s amnesty bill from various thinkers across the political spectrum. It is an interesting collection of opinions and commentary that provide a window into how this news is playing out domestically.
You can read our translation here:
1850 GMT: Many people know about Sergei Magnitsky because of the “Magnitsky Act” which sanctioned some of his persecutors and set off an international firestorm, eventually leading to Russia banning American adoptions. What many may forget, though, is that the person that Sergei Magnitsky helped topple is the former defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The first indications are that Serdyukov will not qualify for amnesty. The Moscow Times reports:
It remained unclear whether the amnesty, which covers non-violent first-time offenders, would extend to former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. He faces negligence charges for the use of 56 million rubles ($1.7 million), but has been thought to be a candidate for the amnesty.
Besides mentioning first-time non-violent offenders, the amnesty bill also states that it would apply to the mothers of young children, war veterans, police officers and elderly people
“There might be some pregnant women and the mothers of small children among Serdyukov’s acquaintances, but these categories probably don’t refer to this individual himself,” Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the Duma’s Legislation Committee, said.
1744 GMT: Amnesty International has already published a clear verdict of today’s amnesty law: “This Amnesty Law is no substitute for an effective, independent justice system. Indeed, it is further proof of the politicization of justice in Russia.”
“It is difficult to welcome the Amnesty law adopted by the Russian Duma today. While it will no doubt benefit many victims of injustice, it will not erase the criminal records of those wrongfully convicted. Also it will not extend to all those Amnesty International considers prisoners of conscience, including many currently standing trial in connection with the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protest,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Director.
1700 GMT: There are still significant unanswered questions about who is included in this amnesty bill and who is not.
The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller has just spoken to the BBC World Service, which in turn has spoken to some directly involved in the Bolotnaya case, and the defendants themselves appear confused as to whether the amnesty will apply to them.
This confusion is reflected in the BBC’s latest news report on the amnesty bill, which is unclear about which prisoners will be freed and which will be let go.
Why the confusion? Our understanding is that the amnesty bill did not name protesters by name, but rather is a legal framework that eventually will mean that approximately 20,000-22,000 prisoners will be set free.
So how do we know that Pussy Riot and the Greenpeace activists will be freed? This goes to the heart of how such things operate. When the bill was written, and when the amendments were written and debated, the lawmakers were fully aware of which high-profile prisoners would and would not be included in the framework of the bill. That information has then been leaked to the media, likely first through government-controlled news agencies. For everyone who is less famous, the details of whether the law applies to them or not may take some time for the legal system to iron out.
1500 GMT: Some procedural clarifications…
There was some confusion as to whether or not the amnesty bill would apply to those who are still awaiting trial. In the 1st draft of the bill, those who were not yet convicted would not be eligible for amnesty, which, as we reported earlier this week, would mean that the Greenpeace and Bolotnaya activists would have to wait until after they were tried and convicted.
That portion of the amnesty has been amended to ensure that those who are still awaiting trial can also be covered under this law. Based on all of the press reports we’ve seen, Greenpeace and at least some of the Bolotnaya protesters will be released.
Also, RIA Novosti notes that the reason that Pussy Riot members will be freed is because they each have children, and the bill made special provisions for prisoners who were mothers.
The final reading of the bill, which has now passed the State Duma, will need to be signed by President Putin in order to become law.
1445 GMT: First, we turn to the latest reports from Russia’s state-owned news outlets. RT reports:
Russia’s lower house of parliament has given a third reading to the amnesty bill, which means jailed members of Pussy Riot punk band may be freed before the New Year and charges against arrested Greenpeace activists are also to be dropped.
All the reports we’ve seen confirm that Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will be included in the amnesty bill, as will the 30 members of the crew of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise.
The sticking point, however, is the Bolotnaya protesters. After the 1st reading of the draft bill by the State Douma, amendments were rejected that would have free all of the 27 imprisoned Bolotnaya protesters. Rapsinews.com reports:
The draft amnesty resolution that passed the first reading of the State Duma pardons only some of the convicted rioters on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow in May 2012. The MPs argue that they have already served their terms and must therefore be released. The committee dealing with the issue considered it unreasonable to approve the amendments which would pardon all the convicts. The State Duma also voted against the proposal.
After the second reading of the bill, some progress was made, according to The Moscow Times:
In its second reading, the Duma introduced amendments that extend the amnesty to people who are accused of participating in “riots” at the Bolotnaya opposition rally in May, 2012, in addition to those who have already been convicted. The amendment, however, still does not cover the supposed organizers of the “riots.”
Dmitry Agranovsky, a lawyer for two Bolotnaya defendants, approved of the amendments but added, “These are only amendments, let’s wait until the evening,”
Opposition lawmakers Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomaryov had proposed extending the amnesty to the Bolotnaya “riot” organizers, as well as to the mothers of disabled adults and to people with severe illnesses, but the Duma voted down the proposal.
So it is possible that some, but not all, of the Bolotnaya protesters will be freed. RT reports that after the third reading, perhaps 9 of the protesters will be freed:
Charges against nine protesters – who are accused of taking part in mass unrest, or calling for it – may soon be dropped. Protesters who attacked police will not be included in the amnesty, however.
The amnesty also does not cover the alleged organizers of the mass unrest on May 6, 2012:Left Front movement leader Sergey Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev.
One thing we do know: according to Bloomberg, Mikhail Khodorkovsky will not be freed.
Footnotes: