During the night of 25-26 June activists in the Urals carried out an operation in support of the former head of Yukos.

Having traced a portrait of Khodorkovsky they transferred his image to many hoardings and fences in the centre of Yekaterinburg. Next to his features the young members of the Oborona (Defence) movement added the slogan “Freedom for Khodorkovsky means freedom for me”.

“Many Russians do not know we have political prisoners in Russia,” stated a press release issued by Oborona: “former Yukos managers, scientists accused of espionage and members of Limonov’s party whose cases were all falsified for political reasons. It is our duty to show our solidarity with them. Oborona is protesting today against the political persecution of individuals in Russia and demands they be given a fair trial”.

Yevgeny Legedin, city coordinator for Oborona, told journalists: “People have begun to forget who Khodorkovsky is. We decided to remind them.”


(Kasparov.ru, 26.06.2008; also reported by radio station Echo Moskvy and the Trud daily newspaper)