In prison, you have to put all of this into perspective. And you have to stay calm. Prison allows for introspection and a deeper analysis of external reality. The pace of life slows down. It’s a curious paradox – every day drags on slowly, but weeks, months and years fly by. One thing I learned in prison that I did not have before is patience. When I was free, an hour seemed a long time; but in prison, it’s a moment. Prison lets you go deeper into your thoughts. The quality of concentration is absolute. My ten years inside were a chance to think, to read and to learn. I thought about myself and my family, my life and my beliefs; I thought about Russia and what my country stands for. I read Solzhenitsyn, but I didn’t take any great inspiration from him – I felt these were the writings not of a fighter, but of an opportunist. I would never condemn someone whose aim is survival and who writes about surviving as an achievement. I simply didn’t find it inspiring. Vasily Grossman and Varlam Shalamov, on the other hand, I found full of integrity, if also very harsh. You read them and you know that these are people whose example you want to follow; they make you want to keep on fighting.
I felt responsible for my friends and colleagues who were arrested with me and who were suffering in captivity. Vasily Aleksanyan, our former Yukos lawyer, was diagnosed with AIDS in prison and the authorities denied him life-saving drugs unless he agreed to testify against me. Vasily refused to perjure himself and I again went on dry hunger strike to demand he be transferred to hospital. The demand was met after ten days, but it was too late – they let him out just in time for him to die in freedom. Despite the efforts of his family and friends, Vasily Aleksanyan fell victim to the vindictiveness of the system. Just like Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital tax adviser who perished in police custody, my friend was the victim of a ruthless state apparatus.
After an international outcry and the intervention of Western politicians including Angela Merkel and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, I was released in December 2013 and put on a plane to the West. I was able to meet my young granddaughter for the first time and to spend time with my parents. It was an emotional moment. My mother had fallen ill while I was in jail and she died soon after my release.
It is clear that Putin wanted to release me, not least because keeping me in jail was making him look bad in the eyes of the world, but because he also wanted to brush up his image ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014.
How did I feel when I was released? Joy to see my family was the predominant emotion. And it was nice to eat proper food again. As for things that surprised me, I’d say the power of social media was the biggest shock. I read a lot when I was inside, so I had a theoretical understanding of everything that was happening, even of iPhones; but the whole phenomenon of social media in practice was a culture shock. Nothing prepared me for the extent of the influence it has had on humankind. Technology had made communication so fast and so efficient.
I kept a diary while I was in prison, but I don’t go back and read it, and I have neither the time nor the desire to continue writing diaries now. I don’t have bad dreams and I don’t have flashbacks to my time in jail – luckily, I’m calm about it all. Of course, I’ve read the stories about Putin’s FSB assassins coming to the West to murder people that their boss doesn’t like. I’ve never had the sense that I’m being followed, but I understand perfectly well that if Putin gives the order to have me removed, I will be. What else can I say? I suppose that since everyone knows I am one of his most prominent personal enemies, having me killed would be a very obvious and public gesture on his part. I don’t know if that would stop him; maybe it wouldn’t – he has been pretty brazen about these things. But let’s hope that some rules of the game remain in play.
I have made an effort to use my experiences for positive ends. I redoubled my charitable activities and expanded my philanthropic organisation, Open Russia, which promotes civic values and the education of young people. Because Vladimir Putin views these values as a threat, the authorities harassed and threatened Open Russia with increasing vehemence. In the Russian presidential elections of 2018, and in all elections since, Open Russia supporters have played a big part in organising democratic opposition to the current regime.
