Vladimir Putin promised in March 2000 that if he were elected president, Russia's "class of oligarchs will cease to exist." He was, but it didn't. Instead, former President and now Prime Minister Putin used the last 11 years to reward the tycoons he liked and punish those who dared to challenge him—just ask Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Russia's most famous dissident today is neither artist nor philosopher. He spent much of the 1990s as a Kremlin favorite and was Russia's richest man as head of Yukos, the country's largest private oil company. Today, Mr. Khodorkovsky is en route to an undisclosed prison somewhere in Siberia, to await a parole hearing that his lawyers fear will be "hidden away in the colonies."
Read Full Article »