Novaya Gazeta speaks to Alexei Simonov, Irina Yasina, Vladimir Ryzhkov and others about the hunger strike.

’Novaya Gazeta.ru’, 31.01.2008

Alexei Simonov, ðresident of the Glasnost Defence Foundation:

- Let’s hope that the desperate measures to which people resort for lack of access to a more democratic option will have an effect there where normal human order is usually absent.

Galina Mikhaleva, member of the Yabloko party:

- It is obvious that Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky’s dry hunger strike in support of his friend is putting his own life at risk. It’s an indicator that the system has driven itself into a dead end. It shows the complete barbarity of our penitentiary system, which has inherited all the flaws of the GULAG.

Irina Yasina, leader of the regional journalist organisation ‘Firsthand’:

What mediaeval horror! A person left with no choice will take the most extreme measures. Mikhail Borisovich is, perhaps, doing just that. But, naturally, as someone who knows him, I do not endorse his decision because it is such an enormous health risk. Even if everything was to suddenly end for the better, each such action jeopardises a person’s health and you never know when it is too much. It’s very frightening. For God’s sake, hold on and stay alive.

Ludmila Alexeeva, human rights activist:

- I signed a statement demanding that Aleksanyan is to be placed in a specialist clinic. Not just because the law says so but also because any sense of humanity says so too. The only thing that prevents this from happening is some kind of savage indifference to a man’s fate and the cruelty of those who are keeping him locked up. I fully understand Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s action. There is a tradition among intellectual and political prisoners – which is what I believe Mikhail Khodorkovsky to be – that existed even before the Revolution and lasted through Soviet times: if such lawlessness and cruelty is shown to one of them, then the others will support him even at the risk of their own health. It’s plain humane. Vasily Aleksanyan and Mikhail Khodorkovsky have my full understanding, my deepest sympathies with their situation and my support in their claims.


Vladimir Ryzhkov, politician:

- These are shocking news. In spite of the dissatisfaction with the court’s verdicts Mikhail Borisovich has never taken it this far before. He has declared a dry hunger strike and this means that it might be a matter of hours rather than days with regards to the state of his health, even his life. He has taken the most extreme measures, provoked by the actions of the Russian justice system against his former colleague, Vasily Aleksanyan, who is, contrary to Russian law, not being allowed any medical care at all. Three orders from the European court with regards to the need for his urgent hospitalization at a specialist clinic have been completely ignored by the penitentiary system, the legal system and, unfortunately, even the court. It was obvious from Aleksanyan’s court appearance that the Prosecutor General had repeatedly tried to get him to testify against the Yukos management and to give false evidence in exchange for his release and medical care. He refused and it stands clear now that our legal system is killing Aleksanyan for refusing to commit perjury.

It is now a matter of hours and the only right thing for the Russian authorities to do – especially for Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika, and Chief Justice, Lebedev – is to urgently enforce the European Court’s decision. If this does not happen over the next days to come, if Khodorkovsky ends up being force fed like they did in the Stalinist camps and Brezhnev asylums, the consequences for Russia’s reputation will be disastrous and especially so for its leadership, President Putin and Kremlin candidate Medvedev, who only recently spoke about our lawful state and the triumph of its laws.

If the torturing of Aleksanyan continues and he dies in his cell before the court have sentenced him and if torture will be used against Khodorkovsky – force feeding is also a form of torture – this means that Russia’s political regime has taken on a completely new, more violent and dangerous nature. Then it is no longer a question of the destruction of freedom of speech, political competition and the persecution of civil society. It’s a matter of the physical destruction of people who the authorities for some reason or other consider to be their political enemies.

Boris Nemtsov, politician:

- Khodorkovsky and I discussed through a lawyer the possibility of a dry hunger strike. My mother is, incidentally, a doctor and she warned him about a dry hunger strike as you may catch tuberculosis, which might kill you. He promised to follow my mother’s advice. As far as the outrageous story with Aleksanyan is concerned, I can only say that the level of brutality and cynicism and the methods used is reminiscent of Gestapo methods. If a man diagnosed with AIDS is not being allowed care, then how are they different from the Gestapo? From an emotional perspective I can understand Mikhail Borisovich’s position but not from a rational perspective.