Jew World Order

“If he is willing, there is much that Putin can do to push Russian
society down the road to democracy and reform,” said Mr Khodorkovsky,
48, who is behind bars at a penal colony in Karelia region in northwest
Russia. “But surrounding himself by ‘yes men’, he will not often hear
the case for change. It is the role of other world leaders to spell out the
price Russia tragically pays for being semi-detached from the family of
modern democratic nations.”

The tycoon said western countries had “much to gain” if they helped
transform Russia from a country where “the state expropriates assets
and where the rule of law has been corrupted” into a stable democracy
with a diverse economy.

“I would strongly urge Mr Cameron to speak the truth to Mr Putin, that
Russia cannot survive on fossil fuels alone and that the days of being able
to maintain a ‘managed democracy’ are numbered,” he said.

Mr Putin was elected for a third term as president in March after a series of
mass street protests against his rule, and announced a new government
dominated by loyal hardliners last week.

Mr Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia’s richest man and owner of the Yukos oil
giant, was prosecuted after coming in to conflict with Mr Putin in the early
2000s, when the latter was serving his first term in the Kremlin. The
businessman was handed a new sentence in a second fraud trial in 2010 which
will keep him in jail until 2017.

Mr Putin is widely thought to have initiated the legal charge on Mr
Khodorkovsky in retaliation against him sponsoring opposition parties, while
the Russian leader’s supporters say the businessman is a thief who deserved
all he got.

In the letter passed to The Sunday Telegraph via his lawyers, Mr
Khodorkovsky said Mr Putin needed to be taught a lesson: “I understand
it would be very difficult for the British government to ban any head of
state from the Olympics, especially from a member-state of the G8 and
Council of Europe.

“I also, however, understand that the values of the Olympics are about
respect, excellence and friendship and it would do Putin no harm to be
exposed to these ideals and think of applying them at home.”

Mr Khodorkvosky said there was “something that the British government can
do to raise the profile of human rights whilst playing host to the Olympic
Games”. He referred to a list of Russian officials allegedly involved
in human rights violations which was presented to the US Congress last year
by the opposition leader and former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.

“I would call on the UK public to look closely at Kasparov’s list when
checking against the Russian delegation visiting for London 2012,” said
Mr Khodorkovsky.

The suggested visa-ban list, available online, includes Mr Surkov, the former
Kremlin “grey cardinal”, Mr Yakemenko, who was once head of the
rampantly nationalist Nashi youth group, Mr Churov, who is detested by
liberals for his alleged role in election fraud, and Yury Chaika, Russia’s
tough prosecutor general.

It also features hundreds of prosecutors, policemen and state employees
allegedly involved in the persecution of Yukos employees, and in the death
in custody in Moscow of 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

It is unclear how many of the people on the list intend to visit London for
the Olympics. Mr Yakemenko’s federal agency on youth affairs, RosMolodezh,
is subordinated to the ministry of sport and he is known to be a table
tennis fan. No one was available for comment at the agency on Friday.

Moscow is already seething at US and EU proposals to introduce a “Magnitsky
list”. The US is said to have quietly introduced a ban on 60 Russian
officials suspected of involvement in his death in July last year, and the
UK reportedly followed suit in April. US senators want more stringent
measures to freeze the officials’ assets.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said last month that if the US
enshrined sanctions in law it would be seen in Moscow as a “boorish
interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and would damage ties with
Washington.

The UK has been trying to patch up relations with Moscow after a sharp dip
following the death in London in 2006 of former KGB colonel Alexander
Litvinenko. Mr Cameron met Mr Putin and then-President Dmitry Medvedev on a
visit to Moscow last September and said the Litvinenko affair should not “freeze
the entire relationship”.

A British government official said on Friday that Russia remained a “crucial
partner” for the UK and that Mr Cameron’s visit last year had “set
the tone for a relationship on a stronger footing”.

He said the principle areas of discussion during Mr Hague’s visit to Moscow
tomorrow would be multilateral issues such as Iran, Syria and the Middle
East peace process.

However, the Foreign Secretary is also expected to address the ongoing
stalemate over Litvinenko’s alleged murder. Russia has refused to extradite
the chief suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, to the UK. A lack of prosecutions in the
Magnitsky case may also be raised.

Mr Khodorkovsky said in his letter that he did not expect to be released early
from prison under Russia’s current leadership. He kept up his spirits by
corresponding with intellectuals like popular Russian novelist and
opposition figure Boris Akunin, and by anticipating time with his family
when he is finally freed, he said.

“The hope of one day being able to hold my granddaughter in my arms is
one of my many dreams that keep me going.”