People expect some kinds of decisions from Putin that will help them see their own future. A significant part of the people that he relies on are quite content with him telling them that nothing is going to change. But that part of the elite that does want to see some changes and improvements are going to expect him to, in his next term, bring Russia back into the club of the great powers.
Mikhail KhodorkovskyWhat's important to me now is to uphold my good name and achieve a fair court decision - the past cannot be recovered anyway.
Mikhail KhodorkovskyAnd so, now things that are important are, for example, the upcoming elections. It's important that society demonstrate that it is not pretending that these elections are elections.
Mikhail KhodorkovskyI knew President Yeltsin well. He would never have tolerated government officials demonstratively showing off the millions they acquired through corruption, the way it's done today.
Mikhail KhodorkovskyPart of the people here are interested in the same thing that Putin is interested in: Putin wants to have America as an enemy. Part of Americans want to have Russia as an enemy. It's advantageous. The other part of the people are just ordinary people. And these people project onto big objects the kind of relations that they have with small objects in their everyday lives.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky