The writer tells Echo Moskvy radio station about his correspondence with Mikhail Khodorkovsky

cho Moskvy, 5 October 2008

The exchange of letters between the two men has been published in the latest (October) issue of the Russian edition of Esquire. Akunin’s contacts with the former head of Yukos have become an important event in his life, the writer tells Echo Moskvy.

“Until now Mikhail Khodorkovsky mainly represented for me certain public issues,” said the writer. “Since I have been in contact with him, however, if only through our exchange of letters, I cannot cease to regard him as a human being.”

“For me he is a real person who is suffering, an intelligent, strong man with a highly developed sense of his own dignity who is being kept in prison,” stressed Akunin.

In their first letters to one another Mikhail Khodorkovsky promised Akunin that he would speak “with complete frankness”. “He is a private person, of an introvert kind of character and I can see how hard it was for him to answer these questions,” said the writer.

Akunin was “most touched and moved by Khodorkovsky’s reply to the question that we have all wondered about during these years: does he not regret that he did not leave the country?”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky answered “very well”, says the writer: “Yes, every day when I think of my family I regret the fact. However, when I think that I would not have been able to live with myself if I had given in, I do not regret it.” Akunin considers this “The answer of a strong and admirable man”. As long as Khodorkovsky remains in prison, the writer believes, “we cannot remain calm”.

The situation, in his words, is “despicable, unjust and dishonest”. Akunin added that other writers now intended to follow his example, they also want to make contact with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Akunin named no names but said that they are well known Russian authors.