Tomorrow, Mikhail Khodorkovsky will take part in a bizarre online interview. On his fifth birthday spent in prison, he will answer all Gazeta-reader submitted questions - nearly a thousand of them.
Russian media circuit Gazeta has enlisted the user-submitted Q&A format with their interviewees before, from Putin to Earth-orbiting astronauts. More than seven hundred questions and growing, Gazeta is accepting and expecting Khodorkovsky to answer all qualified inquiries (in Russian or English, sans obscenities, threats, or calls to anti-authoritarian action).
Former oil oligarch Khodorkovsky has so far survived the destruction of his fortune, a two-president-long political crusade against him, questionable trials and years of prison-hopping, including recent imprisonment in Siberia. If that wasn't enough, now he has to answer hundreds of questions like "When you get out, what will you do? Can I work for you?" and "Are you lonely?"
Gazeta's question of the day comes from reader Mark: "In your opinion, how should young people behave if they have liberal values but also a desire to work and live in Russia, which causes them to either compromise their conscience or sacrifice effectiveness?" How indeed.
Stay tuned for further RUSSIA! coverage of this epic interview.
[Спросите Михаила Ходорковского]