Russia’s president Vladimir Putin should free my father and respect the law

October 24th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Democracy and human rights in Russia remain fragile. But neither I nor my
father has lost hope. More than 82,000 Russians voted online last week in
the first Opposition Council election. The results are less important than
the fact that more than 165,000 Russians registered, uploading their photos
to the election website, and risking reprisals from government forces.

But pro-democracy activists still have a long way to go. The paradox of
Putin’s authoritarian rule is this: although his popularity has ebbed in the
past year, and the opposition movement grown, a fair election – for the
Duma, for regional governors, for president – would have yielded a
pro-Kremlin result.

Large parts of Russia still prefer Putin’s style of rule to the alternatives.
But instead of capitalising on his position, Putin is jeopardising it by
cracking down harder, adding fuel to the opposition fire. Indeed, his
authoritarian displays, such as locking up the three women from Pussy Riot
for singing a 30-second song in a church, have made him look ridiculous.

But Russia will soon face intensified international attention, given its
slaughter-facilitating intransigence on Syria, its recent accession to the
World Trade Organisation, and its hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The
question for Putin is how to hold onto power peacefully, without looking
ever more authoritarian, outlandish and out of control.

My family and I hope that part of the answer could be to free my father. I am
not naive enough to think that Putin will suddenly develop a love of the
rule of law and loosen his grip on the judiciary. Nor do I necessarily think
that he cares about coming across unfavourably around the world. But Western
governments, including the US and United Kingdom; respected peace activists,
from Elie Wiesel to Aung San Suu Kyi; human rights groups, such as Amnesty
International and Freedom House; and noted legal organisations such as the
International Bar Association all agree: my father’s freedom would boost
Russia’s international legitimacy, open up its market to foreign investors
and demonstrate that the nation is serious about the rule of law.

My father has stated often that he has no political ambitions. His only
vocational aspirations are to return to philanthropy and education
programmes, like the Open Russia Foundation he began a decade ago. He does
not want to return to oil.

For now, however, his future decisions are hypothetical. Yet as he sits in
jail, he remains a galvanising figure – and a thorn in Putin’s side. His
writings on democracy and freedom are read and admired across Russia and the
world, his vision of a new Russia reverberating in the minds of every one of
us. “I am convinced the only way forward,” he recently told a German
newspaper, “is non-violent protest with the objective of attaining the
liberalisation of socio-political life… the probability of [liberalisation]
is extremely significant in the next three to five years.”

If Putin wanted Mikhail Khodorkovsky to go away, he should have exiled him
like so many others, to the anonymity of a New York or London cocktail
party. Instead, as he begins his tenth year away from us, my father feels
closer – his words more poignant, his ideas more likely to spark something
revolutionary – than at any time in the last nine years.

Pavel Khodorkovsky is president of the Institute of Modern Russia and is
based in New York

Source Article from http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568301/s/24d749bf/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cworldnews0Cvladimir0Eputin0C9630A8390CRussias0Epresident0EVladimir0EPutin0Eshould0Efree0Emy0Efather0Eand0Erespect0Ethe0Elaw0Bhtml/story01.htm