Did Mikhail Khodorkovsky say that in the event of his arrest on Red Square, NATO landing will quickly land?

On the Internet, you can find a statement attributed to the Russian entrepreneur and politics. We checked whether Khodorkovsky declared something like that.

In 2003, one of the richest people in Russia, co -owner of the oil company Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky was Arrested On charges of theft and tax failure. Two years later, he was convicted of the second of these points to seven years in prison, to which the deadline for the theft of energy resources was subsequently added. In 2013, the former entrepreneur was pardoned and ahead of schedule was released by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

In different sources, you can read that Khodorkovsky was so confident in his own inviolability in the early 2000s that he said to a certain foreign journalist in an interview: “In the event of my arrest after a couple of hours (in some sources“ half an hour ”.-Ed.), NATO landing will be landed on Red Square (in some sources of the US Corps landing.-Ed.).

You can read about this on resources such as "Tsargrad" Pravda.ru, "Politonine","Journalistic truth" And "Myrtesen". The quote dispersed widely on social networks - it is mentioned from time to time, for example, in "Live magazine" Telegram And X.

Khodorkovsky case caused a polar reaction in Russia and the world. Some considered the criminal prosecution fair, others focused on the political motives of the current authority (immediately before the arrest, Khodorkovsky accused of corruption the immediate environment of the president). Foreign and independent Russian media and experts called The arrest of the entrepreneur "a key event that marked Putin's departure from liberal values ​​and the image of the successor of Yeltsin." In 2011, human rights organization Amnesty International I assigned Mikhail Khodorkovsky the status of a prisoner of conscience.

A quote about NATO landing, as a rule, is used by Khodorkovsky opponents. However, the first thing that catches the eye when studying examples of using this phrase is the lack of a clear link to the source. No one writes when and in what circumstances the quote was uttered, the publication in which it appeared for the first time was indicated, only occasionally it is mentioned that this was done during communication with foreign journalists.

Another feature-before and immediately after the arrest of Khodorkovsky, this quote was not given by no one large and authoritative publication. “Verified” did not find traces of the statement either in the archive of the Russian independent press (Rima), neither in the Russian archive of the periodical East View. The quote is not found in the database of the project "Google Books". At the same time, such an acute statement from the leader of the Russian list Forbes That time simply could not help but notice the media. As the study shows “verified”, the quote is mainly in social networks, occasionally obtaining bursts of popularity thanks to individual popular publications. For example, in 2006 it He mentioned The Writer and REPENITION OF ALLOKOST Oleg Platonov, after 2013, some referred to an article in "Politonine", And in 2019 a phrase Used In ironic tweet, ex-deputy of the State Duma from United Russia Konstantin Rykov.

Khodorkovsky himself in his publications repeatedly indirectly Gave understandwhich is not related to a viral quote. In addition, contrary to her main thought, in 2006 he in interview Alexander Prokhanov said that he was not at all shocked by the fact of his arrest, since he was “warned in advance of well -informed people about the likely immersion in prison”.

“Verified” contacted the politician through his press secretary, and Khodorkovsky gave a direct refutation: he never said such a phrase. According to him, he once even tried to find out where she came from, but did not find a clear answer-the traces led somewhere in the direction of ill-wishers in power structures.

The oldest mention of quote, discovered “verified”, is dated 2005 and is found in one of the comments In the “Live Journal”, but it was clearly not the first - both here and in some other records of that time, they refer to the phrase as a long -familiar one. She has something in common with attributed American President Jimmy Carter with a statement: “I cannot send the sea infantry to free the Soviet prisoners of conscience. But I will do the rest. "

Thus, there is no evidence that Khodorkovsky has ever talked about NATO landing on Red Square. Authoritative publications of different years bypassed this quote, and the alleged author himself categorically denies such an attribution.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Most likely not true

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