Khodorkovsky says Russians have a right to disobey ‘unjust laws’

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon, who became a social activist, after a decade as a political prisoner, has released a statement saying that “many laws in the Russian Federation are immoral and unjust” and Russian citizens “have the right to disobey unlawful, unjust laws.”

According to the statement, published on the website of Khodorkovsky’s NGO Open Russia, unjust laws include the ban on American adoptions of Russian children, Vladimir Putin's executive decree ordering the destruction of sanctioned food imports, and laws banning websites, initiated by the Kremlin’s media watchdog.

Khodorkovsky notes that the problem is not limited to unjust laws, but also includes unjust court rulings. He compares the examples of Oleg Mironov, who was jailed for three years for tear-gassing a crowd at a rock concert given by anti-Kremlin singer Andrey Makarevich, and film director Oleg Sentsov, a pro-Ukrainian activist who recently got 20 years on “terrorism” charges. Khodorkovsky also cites the case of Evgeniya Vasilyeva—the  former Defense Ministry official charged with large-scale fraud who was released from prison on parole after serving just four months of her five-year sentence.

According to Khodorkovsky, Russian law enforcement no longer follows the law and instead punishes anyone acting socially or politically who doesn't coordinate such work with the government. Real criminals, meanwhile, are pardoned and released early, Khodorkovsky argues, so long as there was prior clearance from the state. 

Khodorkovsky says Russians might fight for better laws that could form the basis of a government that would "comply with the interests of all citizens: those on the left, those on the right, centrists, men and women, conservatives and feminists, [and] those who live in the capital and in the nation’s periphery.”

There is a longstanding discussion in many countries about the relationship between the law and justice, and a general consensus has arisen. If the law is unjust and unlawful, citizens have the right to disobey it. After all, the genocide in Nazi Germany was carried out in accordance with the law, but who would dare blame those Germans who went against this and refused to follow these laws?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of the oil company Yukos, was sentenced to a prison term in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion. In December 2013, he went free, following a pardon from Vladimir Putin. Khodorkovsky was considered by many to be a political prisoner. His NGO Open Russia is dedicated to promoting the rule of law in Russia.