BERLIN, January 16 (RIA Novosti) – Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who flew to Berlin immediately after being released from prison last month, is returning to the German capital after visiting Switzerland and Israel earlier this month, German media has reported.
Khodorkovsky, who was Russia’s richest man when he was jailed in 2003, is expected to meet Thursday with Germany’s former commissioner for German-Russian coordination, Andreas Schockenhoff, who had pushed for Khodorkovsky’s release, as well as Schockenhoff’s successor, Gernot Erler, the Berlin Morgenpost reported.
Khodorkovsky, freed by presidential pardon after a decade in prison on tax evasion and fraud charges, is also expected to soon meet with representatives of the human rights group Amnesty International and a number of other NGOs, as well as take part in a memorial service dedicated to his former lawyer Yuri Schmidt, who died a year ago.
