Quotes About Khodorkovsky

in 2003, when Khodorkovsky attempted to talk to Putin about corruption, the global organization Transparency International ranked Russia as more corrupt than 64 percent of the world's countries:

had been just over a year since Khodorkovsky's arrest, and it was now clear Russia had passed two milestones. With the country's former richest man behind bars indefinitely, no one, not even the rich and powerful, could afford free agency.

In the early 1990s, Khodorkovsky made a fortune by attracting government deposits to his bank and speculating against the collapsing ruble. His bank, Menatep, was the largest holder of government funds, and much of the profit he made as a banker came at the government's expense.19 Khodorkovsky used his banking business to expand into other sectors, purchasing the Yukos oil company at a knock-down price in 1995 through a scandal-plagued privatization scheme.

Khodorkovsky won few allies in this fight. His contempt for government officials was alienating, as were his demands that the government fire officials on the sole grounds that he found them incompetent