Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky – freed

On December 20, 2013 Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released after spending more than 10 years in prison. He served a 13-year sentence in a penal colony in Segezha (Karelia). Immediately after the liberation businessman flew to Germany. Khodorkovsky suddenly turned from prisoner to a free man. On December 19, Vladimir Putin said that the ex-Yukos CEO wrote a petition for clemency on family grounds. The next day the request was granted.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (born on June 26, 1963) is a well-known person, a Russian businessman, an oligarch, a philanthropist, a political prisoner.
Mikhail was born into the family of Boris and Marina Khodorkovsky. Both mother and father were chemical engineers, all their life they worked at the Moscow plant. The family lived modestly, his father worked part-time. Mikhail lived with his parents in a two room apartment in Moscow. At school Khodorkovsky was fond of chemistry and mathematics.

In 1981, Khodorkovsky entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, where he became a deputy secretary of the local branch of the Komsomol. At the beginning of perestroika he created his first business organization Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth. While studying at the institute he worked as a carpenter in the building society Standards.

Famous Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail married his classmate Elena and in 1985 they became parents of their son Pavel. Inna became his second wife, whom he married in 1991. They have daughter Anastasia (born on April 26, 1991) and twins – Ilya and Gleb (born on April 17, 1999).
In 1997-2004 Khodorkovsky was co-owner and head of the oil company Yukos. And in 2003 he was arrested.
At the time of his arrest Mikhail was one of the richest men on the planet and was named Person of the Year by Expert, sharing this title with Roman Abramovich.
Some people believe that Khodorkovsky was rightly convicted; others think he is a prisoner of conscience, who was persecuted for political reasons.
In 2011 filmmaker Cyril Tuschi made a documentary about the Russian oil billionaire.
Source: khodorkovsky.ru