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Can Russian exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky replace Putin? Anti-Putin Russian forces are looking to Khodorkovsky to win, but the question is whether he can garner the same support at home.
American Thinker ^ | 03/07/2023 | Deborah Ephron

Posted on 03/07/2023 7:14:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Most of the world is focused on the war in Ukraine, which has created political unrest in most western countries. Although it feels as though Russia is under a microscope, there is a lot of Russian politics that the media has not discussed. One of these things is that there are rivals to Putin, one of whom is Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Munich Security Conference took place two weeks ago. Although Russian officials are usually invited, this year that changed.

Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, organizers decided to invite Russian politicians pushing to replace Putin. Those guests included multiple Russian exiles, including the ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov; Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of the slain Russian politician Boris Nemtsov; and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the lapsed oligarch who towers over the rest, primarily due to his being singled out as one of the potential new leaders of Russia should Putin fall.

Once Russia’s richest man and the head of the now-defunct oil giant Yukos, Khodorkovsky has become one of Russia’s biggest political whistleblowers. In 2003, he was arrested for alleged financial fraud after funding opposition leaders and independent media in Russia and spent a decade in prison before Putin finally pardoned him. (He was also formally accused of murdering the mayor of the city where Yuko, was headquartered, although that charge went nowhere.)

After Putin’s pardon saw him released from prison, Khodorkovsky initially vowed to stay out of politics. However, he has since publicly criticized Putin.


Mikhail Khodorkovsky

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: cia; deborahephron; khodorkovsky; mi6; mikhailkhodorkovsky; neoconfantasies; neoconpropaganda; openrussia; putin; russia; russianmafia; soros; sorosally; whenpigsfly; yukos
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course he can’t. How do I know? He’s alive.


21 posted on 03/07/2023 8:38:56 AM PST by dangus ( )
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To: SeekAndFind
Or he might not.

Like I said before, this looks like wishful thinking to me. Very dangerous.

If we are going to beat the Russians in Ukraine with this proxy war we have going, the best odds do not include depending on a Putin replacement. That will be an effect of a Ukraine victory, not a cause of it.

I do appreciate the interesting articles and points-of-view that you find and present to us. Keep up the good work!

22 posted on 03/07/2023 8:40:08 AM PST by flamberge (We don't get the government we vote for. We get the government we will tolerate.)
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To: SeekAndFind

WIKI>>>>

Khodorkovsky’s parents, Boris and Marina Khodorkovsky, were engineers at a factory making measuring instruments in Moscow.[19] Khodorkovsky’s father was Jewish, and his mother was Russian Orthodox (Christian). They were both opponents of Communism, though they kept this from their son, who was born in 1963. Having experienced a rise in state anti-Semitism and the death of Stalin, the Khodorkovskys were part of a generation of well-educated Soviets who were silently supportive of dissidents.

The family were moderately well off, living in a two-room flat in a concrete block in the suburbs of Moscow. Masha Gessen wrote that they faced a dilemma raising Mikhail: “Speak your mind about the Soviet Union and risk making your child miserable, with the constant need for doublethink and doublespeak, or try to raise a contented conformist. They chose the second path, with results that far exceeded their expectations. Mikhail became a fervent Communist and Soviet patriot, a member of a species that had seemed all but extinct.”[20]

The young Khodorkovsky was ambitious and received excellent grades. He became deputy head of Komsomol (the Communist Youth League) at his university, the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, from which he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 1986.[21] While in college, Khodorkovsky married a fellow student, Yelena. They had a son, Pavel. In 1986, he met an 18-year-old, Inna, a student at the Mendeleev Institute who was a colleague of Khodorkovsky’s at the Komsomol organization. He courted her and slept in his car until she took him in. They had a daughter and twin sons. He and his first wife remained on good terms, and she would later take an active part in the campaign for his release from prison.[20]


23 posted on 03/07/2023 8:50:06 AM PST by dennisw ("You don't have to like it. You just have to do it")
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To: SeekAndFind
https://sonar21.com/the-west-does-a-back-flip-on-bakhmuts-strategic-importance/

Russia has lopped off the arms and legs of the Ukrainians and President Zelensky and General Zalushny insist it is only a flesh wound. This absurdity would normally be great grist for a comedy sketch. But there is nothing humorous about this war, it is a profound tragedy. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are being sacrificed needlessly because NATO wants to use Ukraine as a proxy to fight Russia. And behind these horrendous casualties there are hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian mothers, fathers and siblings mourning the loss of a loved one.

24 posted on 03/07/2023 8:54:25 AM PST by Kazan
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To: DesertRhino

“At least it’s not an oligarch lol.”

Khodorkovsky is an ex- oligarch. Once he was worth billions. Putin stripped and cheated him out of these billions. Exiled him from Russia. Now he is worth 250-500 million dollars. Not much by Russian oligarch standards. Plus he has no mega-yacht.


25 posted on 03/07/2023 8:57:19 AM PST by dennisw ("You don't have to like it. You just have to do it")
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To: dennisw

He’s a turd. He was a classic criminal 90s oligarch who tried to flip the finger to the government in numerous ways. Putin made him pay taxes and follow their law.

But he’s the darling of London and DC.


26 posted on 03/07/2023 9:19:41 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SeekAndFind

Dear Debora,
Politics isn’t criticizing Putin. Politics is winning elections or gaining power by force. Khodorkovsky can’t win elections and can’t be installed by force, as total military victory over Russia is impossible. Russia can only change from within, when life becomes intolerable for the majority of population, as in 1917 and 1991. In the meantime, The Iron Curtain has to become a Titanium one.


27 posted on 03/07/2023 9:50:25 AM PST by exinnj
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To: Kazan

Even your crocodile tears are fake, troll.


28 posted on 03/07/2023 9:53:16 AM PST by exinnj
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To: exinnj

The only trolls are the Never Trump neocons here, many of which don’t even live in this country.


29 posted on 03/07/2023 10:18:41 AM PST by Kazan
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To: rottweiller_inc

Re: This is the United States introducing it’s puppet for the russian government

:::

Yup sounds like another ‘color revolution’


30 posted on 03/07/2023 10:33:37 AM PST by khelus
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To: DesertRhino
He’s a turd. He was a classic criminal 90s oligarch who tried to flip the finger to the government in numerous ways. Putin made him pay taxes and follow their law.
But he’s the darling of London and DC.

Goofball. Putin seized Mikhail Khodorkovsky's wealth (made during the Boris Yeltsin era) to make way for Putin's own new generation of thieving, degenerate, billionaire oligarchs who are 100x more beholden to him for their wealth. Of course Putin gets a 2-5% cut of their action. This is why Putin is worth a few hundred billion dollars. But when you are going to hell this will not help you.

Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in Vlad's prisons, so he has the credibility that you have none of.

31 posted on 03/07/2023 10:44:21 AM PST by dennisw ("You don't have to like it. You just have to do it")
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To: Kazan

“The only trolls are the Never Trump neocons here, many of which don’t even live in this country.”

I voted Trump twice and worked for Patrick Buchanan in New Hampshire. I got to shake his hand at Anthony’s Pier Four. This appearance secretly sponsored by Billy Bulger and the Southie Democrats.

Never jabbed at all. You might be lots like me. Except that your are a non-American, insane, Russian revanchist. Russian lebensraum is you.


32 posted on 03/07/2023 10:59:04 AM PST by dennisw ("You don't have to like it. You just have to do it")
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To: Kazan
The only trolls are the Never Trump neocons here, many of which don’t even live in this country.

Have we ever seen even one of these FR neocons admit that OUR current American "government" is a product of regime change?

33 posted on 03/07/2023 11:25:24 AM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: SeekAndFind

If Putin is a Russian thief and murderer, which I doubt, at least he is in Russia, not London, Brussels, or DC.

And it isn’t Brussels, London, and Washinton’s business to replace him. Or anybody else for that matter.


34 posted on 03/07/2023 12:04:32 PM PST by katie didit
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To: katie didit

RE: If Putin is a Russian thief and murderer, which I doubt

Why do you doubt?


35 posted on 03/07/2023 12:11:56 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
No. It is more than just Putin, it is the Russian political culture, silvoki mindset, oligarchs, and equally corrupt courts.

Putin, Dmitry Medvedev and like minded allies spent two decades building up the current Russian political insitutions. One person can no change a corrupt system like that single handed.

36 posted on 03/07/2023 12:19:59 PM PST by Widget Jr (🇺🇦 Sláva Ukrayíni 🇺🇦 - No CCCP 2.0)
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To: exinnj

scram, troll


37 posted on 04/18/2023 4:58:01 PM PDT by JonPreston
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