Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Author)
In the early 2000s, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was one of the wealthiest
men in Russia, the head of the giant Yukos oil company, ranked 16th
on Forbes list of world billionaires. But his pro-democracy,
anti-corruption views led to a clash with President Vladimir Putin,
who had him arrested in 2003. Convicted on politically motivated
fraud charges, Khodorkovsky spent ten years in Putin's prison
camps, recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of
conscience. Since his release in December 2013, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky has lived in exile in Switzerland and in the UK. He is
the founder of the Open Russia movement, promoting political reform
in Russia, including free and fair elections, the protection of
journalists and activists, the rule of law and media independence.
He has been described by The Economist as 'the Kremlin's leading
critic-in-exile.'
Martin Sixsmith (Author)
Martin Sixsmith studied Russian at Oxford, Leningrad and the
Sorbonne. He was a Slavics Tutor at Harvard and wrote his
postgraduate thesis about Russian poetry. From 1980 to 1997 he was
the BBC's correspondent in Moscow, Washington, Brussels and Warsaw.
From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the British government as Director
of Communications and Press Secretary to several cabinet ministers.
He is now a writer, presenter and journalist. He is the author of
non-fiction titles including Russia - the Wild East, Putin's Oil,
The Litvinenko File and The War of Nerves. His bestselling 2009
book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, was adapted for film and
became the multiple Oscar-nominated Philomena, starring Steve
Coogan and Judi Dench.
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