Chechnya says Khodorkovsky’s ‘Meduza’ interview is ‘ideological subversion’

The official website of Chechnya’s head, Ramzan Kadyrov, has published a condemnation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky by the republic’s Civic Chamber, a state oversight committee that accuses the former oligarch of libel and “ideological subversion,” citing his interview with this website, Meduza, published earlier this week.

The authorities are particularly alarmed that Khodorkovsky says Chechnya has become “a territorially distinct ethnic criminal gang that tightly controls its territory's population, and hopes to expand its influence across all Russia.” The Chechen Civic Chamber also has concerns about how Khodorkovsky described Kadyrov’s relationship with Russia’s federal law enforcement agencies.

In his Meduza interview, Khodorkovsky said, “At some point, Kadyrov will come unscrewed and escalate the situation into an open fight. And in this situation, the security forces will have to make a very serious decision for themselves: either lie down and take it (a totally unacceptable option for many), or fight it out to the end.”

The Chechen Civic Chamber says Khodorkovsky’s statements are “charged with libel, envy for the revived Chechen Republic, duplicity, and—simply put—hatred for the country.” Russian citizens, the committee says, “understand the worth of an interview with this thief, Khodorkovsky, now holed up in Europe as a bargaining chip in a bigger political game.” 

“You are mistaken, Mr. Khodorkovsky! You are mistaken, and those who hired you made a mistake, too, by hiring such an amateur for this delicate work. It was bound to happen. Khodorkovsky, after all, couldn’t cut it in the business world, and that’s why he was punished by the courts and put behind bars. It’s another matter that Putin, wise and honorable (whom Khodorkovsky now savages), took pity on this man’s suffering and pardoned him.”