MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to return to the presidency has killed the last hopes for more democracy and much-needed economic reforms in Russia, jailed former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote in a newspaper column on Wednesday.
Once Russia’s richest man, Khodorkovsky was jailed after falling foul of the Kremlin during Putin’s two-term, 2000-2008 presidency. His YUKOS oil group that once produced more oil than Qatar was later carved up and sold off.
"Putin’s decision for a third term … killed the last hopes that the system may, of its own initiative, move toward democratisation and liberalisation," said Khodorkovsky, 48, in an opinion article in top business daily Vedomosti.
Putin, who has compared the former tycoon to U.S. gangster Al Capone, is nearly certain to win a six-year term in a presidential election next March. He will be eligible to serve two consecutive terms, meaning he would be in the top seat of power when Khodorkovsky is due for release in 2016
Khodorkovsky in his column also called upon Russians who stay away from elections because they have little confidence that their votes count to instead join political protests.
"For those who for understandable reasons don’t want to vote due to the current electoral realities, participate more actively in the protests of social networking sites," he said.
Khodorkovsky was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005 in a trial supporters said was Kremlin revenge after he publicly aired corruption charges and funded the political opposition. He was convicted of theft and money laundering last year after a second trial that the West suggested was politically motivated.
Currently serving as prime minister, Putin, 59, has hinted that he suspects Khodorkovsky was behind murders in the 1990s, which has led to suggestions more charges could be on the way.
Putin’s near certain return and the departure of current President Dmitry Medvedev, who has publicly championed modernisation of the country’s economy — heavily dependent on oil revenues — have raised the spectre of Soviet-style stagnation that the USSR suffered in the late 1970s and early 1980s under leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Medvedev, who was tapped by Putin to lead the ruling United Russia party and is likely to become prime minister after parliamentary elections in December, is expected to keep up his reform drive aimed at insulating the country from oil price shocks. He has vowed to name a new government with fresh ideas.
"Should we believe this? Will this new team be really new and not just an imitation?" Khodorkovsky wrote. "The social, political and historic dimensions of modernisation are simply being ignored by the authorities."
The article was signed "a prisoner, Penal Colony No. 7, Segezha, Karelia," where he is serving out his sentence.
Putin, speaking last week to investors who have tracked the developments of his case, said political change in Russia would be "evolutionary" and must be conducted with great caution.
Putin’s United Russia party dominates the political system nationwide and will seek to retain its constitutional majority in an election to the lower parliament house on Dec. 4.
Many Russians say they do not vote because they believe their vote will not count or they do not support any of the candidates on election ballots.
Official turnout in Russia’s last four presidential elections has ranged from 64 percent to 70 percent.
