Khordorkovsky says will not go into politics or seek oil assets | Reuters
"I do not intend to get involved in politics and do not intend to fight for the return of assets," Khodorkovsky told the Russian magazine The New Times in an interview.
Khodorkovsky: I’m not interested in lost Yukos assets, but care about people ― RT News
“I personally won’t take any part in this and will have no interest in whether Yukos shareholders win or lose in [lawsuits over the company’s assets]. This issue is closed for me,” Khodorkovsky told Dozhd (Rain) TV’s Ksenia Sobchak in an interview from his hotel room in Berlin.
He added that the part of the Yukos case he is interested in is the fate of its former employees, such as his business partner Platon Lebedev, who remains in a Russian jail for the same crimes that Khodorkovsky has now been pardoned for.
Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky speaks out to CNN - CNN.com
Khodorkovsky made a fortune in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and used the wealth of his Yukos oil company to enter Russian opposition politics.
He has said his prosecution was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him and take control of the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s.
While in prison, Khodorkovsky said he was stabbed in the face.
"When I was stabled with a knife I was lucky -- he tried to get to my eye but he got my nose,"he said. "As a result, the dentist who was there -- someone who was also a plastic surgeon -- carried out an operation on me, which means it was virtually not noticeable."
Putin's decision to pardon Khodorkovsky -- who was supposed to be released next August -- is seen by many as an effort to improve the country's image before it hosts the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February.
Officials say he was released on humanitarian grounds because his mother is ill.
When asked whether he forgives Putin, the former political rival replied, "I would put it differently, perhaps. I don't think that revenge would be any rational behavior. And something that is rational behavior I can always deal with."
