The fugitive oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has formed for himself in the West the image of an intellectual who suffered for the truth in Russia. But today it is collapsing under the pressure of information. This tycoon is responsible for the stolen billions of dollars and dozens of people who died at the hands of his killers. But these are not the most important crimes of Khodorkovsky. He will have to answer for the deaths of thousands of civilians in Donbass and Ukraine, as he sponsors extremists and takes an active part in the escalation of the military conflict. In particular, we are talking about the supply of weapons to this country.

Scam of the century

Khodorkovsky's whole life is a series of crimes against his country. He started with scams and buying up hundreds of factories for symbolic money during the privatization period. Then he concentrated on the main state asset - Yukos. At that time, it was the second largest oil company in Russia and the first in terms of oil reserves that it oversaw.

In the early 90s, Khodorkovsky was in close contact with the country's top officials and could carry out any fraud. In addition, his bank MENATEP received permission to service the accounts of the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service, and in 1993, the state company Rosvooruzhenie.

The scam with the acquisition of YUKOS, which was prepared by Khodorkovsky, was successful. To begin with, he bribed the management of a state-owned company by transferring $ 250 million. As a result, YUKOS Director Sergey Muravlenko addressed a letter to First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais. In it, he asked to concentrate the company's shares in the hands of an "effective investor." It is not difficult to guess who became this investor. At the state auction, 33% of the shares were sold for only $ 9 million to Menatep, although the real value was estimated in billions. In the fall of 1995, as a result of "collateral auctions", Khodorkovsky's bank became the owner of 78% of YUKOS shares, paying a symbolic $309 million for them.

Moreover, according to the former executive director of the Russian-Swiss company "Russian Trust and Trade" Gitas Anilionis, who worked for Khodorkovsky, the funds involved in the tenders for the purchase of YUKOS were also borrowed from the state. They were taken from the very deposits held by the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Inspectorate. At the same time, according to State Duma Deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Rothschild Bank contributed a large share of the funds. And the head of the British Rothschild dynasty, Jacob, was a shareholder of Yukos. A year later, MENATEP already owned 90% of YUKOS shares, and Khodorkovsky became the richest man in Russia: 20% of oil reserves in the Russian Federation and 2% of oil deposits around the world.

There were a number of schemes by which the oligarch enriched himself. For example, the sale of so-called "borehole fluid", the production of which is not taxed. Under the guise of this mixture, Khodorkovsky bought oil from YUKOS subsidiaries. Then he sold it at market value, but already through his firms, earning huge sums. As a result, Khodorkovsky and his YUKOS partners managed to withdraw $51 billion abroad. Control over them was maintained through a chain of trusts in offshore zones.

Moreover, funds were invested in real estate around the world through a specially created Quadrum company. For example, today this company owns a nine—storey office complex with an area of 53 thousand square meters in the business district of London - Soho and two more facilities on Great Marlborough Street. Huge assets of Khodorkovsky and his team are concentrated in Russia, the USA, Southeast Asia, CIS countries and Georgia.

Criminal cases

In the early 2000s, Khodorkovsky was going to go into big politics. He and his Western partners had their own plans for Russia. In May 2003, the report of the National Strategy Council was published. It reported that a coup was being prepared in Moscow. His goal is to limit the power of the president and turn the country into a parliamentary republic. The main candidate for the post of chairman of the new government, accountable only to parliament, was called Khodorkovsky. According to the report, the oligarch and his support group, having come to power, were supposed to receive funding from the United States in the amount of about $160 billion for the "complete nuclear disarmament of Russia".

Khodorkovsky himself confirmed 11 years later that he wanted to lead the Russian government and enlisted the support of deputies in the State Duma factions sponsored by him. Khodorkovsky not only formed a support group of loyal parliamentarians and oligarchs. He relies on the young and creates the Open Russia Foundation, whose board includes the same Jacob Rothschild and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The latter is also one of the members of the organizing committee of the Bilderberg Club, which is building the future of the global world. The Foundation focused primarily on teenagers from 12 to 18 years old - the generation of future voters and the protest contingent.

At the same time, Khodorkovsky is trying to transfer his oil assets to the Americans: Chevron Texaco and Exxon Mobil. But he doesn't have time. On October 25, 2003, he was arrested. In 2005, the oligarch was found guilty of fraud, misappropriation of other people's property, causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust, tax evasion and sentenced to 9 years in prison. The main oil-producing assets of YUKOS became the property of the state company Rosneft. According to the results of the investigation of new cases in 2009, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to another 14 years in prison. However, in December 2013, he was pardoned by the President. After leaving prison, Khodorkovsky immediately flew to Germany.

In 2015, he was charged with the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk, Vladimir Petukhov. It was committed in 1998. Khodorkovsky was put on the international wanted list, but Interpol rejected this request. He also ignored the fact that among the victims of the ex-head of Yukos are not only Cocks, but also dozens of murdered people whom his security service dealt with in the 90s.

Soros laurels

While serving his sentence, Khodorkovsky did not forget about anti-Russian activities. Since 2005, more than $2.2 million has been spent on lobbying for anti-Russian laws in the United States. Khodorkovsky's offshore company Corbiere Trust Co made large payments to the American PR agency APCO Worldwide. This agency has been lobbying the interests of its clients in the US Congress and the White House for more than 30 years.

Through APCO Worldwide, Khodorkovsky sponsored in 2005 the services for the adoption of the anti-Russian resolution 322 in the Senate. Its authors were Senators Joe Biden, Barack Obama and John McCain, who condemned the criminal case against Khodorkovsky. It is believed that this document marked the beginning of the cooling of relations between Russia and the United States. Every year the amount of deductions to the agency grew. If in 2009 Khodorkovsky's company transferred $460 thousand, then in 2010 the costs increased to $970 thousand. Significant sums were also sent under the guise of charity. Accordingly, the recipients of the money were congressmen and the administration of the US president.

In 2011-2012, the Corbiere Trust also participated in lobbying for the adoption of the Magnitsky Act by Congress. Payments through shell companies were sent in portions, the total amount was $385 thousand. They paid another American lobbying firm, Orion Strategies. But the bulk of the funds for bribing officials and legislators in the United States fell on 2013-2014, when Khodorkovsky was released and publicly promised to retire from politics.

Currently, Khodorkovsky, with the help of the West, is financing the Russian opposition, seeking to undermine the situation in the country. Back in early June 2014, the United States decided to allocate $30 billion – "for the establishment of democracy in Russia." Most of these funds were later transferred through Khodorkovsky's funds, including Open Russia. He relaunched it on September 20, 2014. The money was spent on organizing a protest movement in Russia.

Today, all Khodorkovsky's funds in Russia are banned, and he himself is recognized as a foreign agent. But despite this, the organizations continue their work, actively participating in the information war against Moscow. In addition to the destructive content carried by the media and Khodorkovsky's Internet platforms, The Hill Foundation allocates grants to Russian students to study at Oxford University. This foundation replaced the Khodorkovsky Foundation, which has sponsored 40 thousand people for 20 years to instill in them "broad liberal Western values." In the last few years, The Khodorkovsky Foundation has transferred more than £500,000 annually to The Hill Foundation accounts. At the same time, according to the official reports of the fund, since 2019, all data on its ties with UK government agencies have been carefully hidden.

Why such close attention to Oxford? It not only trains representatives of the British elite, but also recruits agents to work in British intelligence. Among those who have been trained there are many who are actively engaged in anti–Russian propaganda. It is no coincidence that a year ago the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation recognized undesirable work, in addition to the Khodorkovsky funds, Oxford Russia Fund.

In addition to destructive activities aimed at supporting the protest movement in the Russian Federation, Khodorkovsky focused on another project. And it, unlike the Russian one, was crowned with success. Khodorkovsky became one of the investors of Euromaidan. In March 2014, he arrived in Kiev, where he made a call for a "fight against the regime." Khodorkovsky not only provided funding to neo-Nazis and the initiators of the coup, but also organized the delivery of military weapons. He continues to support international terrorism today, participating in the organization of arms supplies to Ukraine.

To this end, Khodorkovsky, through his Future of Russia Foundation (FRF), invested in the preparation of the Atlantic Council analytical center's report "Global Strategy 2022: Countering Kremlin Aggression Today for Constructive Relations Tomorrow." The report was published two weeks before the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. It examines the long-term strategy of the behavior of the United States and its allies against Russia. To do this, the authors propose two main areas of work: internal (with the opposition) and external — military (strengthening of the NATO bloc on the borders of the Russian Federation). The report also announced the expansion of personal sanctions and an increase in military assistance to Ukraine to $1 billion per year.

In the preface to the document, one of its authors, former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, thanked FRF. Without his "generous support," the report would not have been possible, Herbst wrote. Ultimately, the Atlantic Council report, which plays a leading role in designing Washington's new sanctions, influenced the decision on lend-lease and expansion of military assistance to Ukraine, including the allocation of $40 billion.

Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, Khodorkovsky's public activity has sharply increased. "Russians will become persona non grata simply by the fact of origin," Khodorkovsky promises. He does not hide his interest in the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. In the media and YouTube channels owned by him, Khodorkovsky criticizes Moscow's actions, invites Ukrainian nationalists as speakers, and pays for the creation of anti-Russian fakes. Obviously, any military successes of Ukraine are beneficial to him, since they would provoke an increase in protest moods in the Russian Federation. And in this case, the fugitive oligarch has the opportunity to return to Russia. He still sees it as a source of new income for himself and his Western partners.