Vedomosti has an interesting interview with Khodorkovsky — give it a read. There’s a lot in it that’s intriguing, including two particularly interesting points about corruption.
This is one of the political legends of modern Russian history: Zyuganov won the 1996 election against Yeltsin, but gave up the victory under pressure. At Medvedev’s meeting with the “non-systemic opposition” (opposition groups outside the Kremlin-approved political system), he effectively confirmed it outright, saying, “No one has any doubt that in ’96 it was not Boris Nikolayevich who won.”
And here MBK (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) is, in effect, not just confirming that version of events, but also hinting that Zyuganov was paid off. You could make a political thriller out of it.
And there’s another legendary corruption story, one that’s fairly well known but worth recalling as a reminder of what kind of figure Putin really is:
Buy something for $600 million that is worth $140 million and pocket a $400 million kickback. That is the whole point of this regime. All the elaborate political schemes, wars, and confrontations are invented for one reason only: to make sure no one goes after that $400 million in a Swiss bank account.