Yukos owner warns "the young people of today"

[Cowperson]

Ah, lots of you are going to love this from the jailed billionaire founder of Yukos, the gigantic Russian petroleum company now seized by Russia in "the swindle of the year" to pay tax debts.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky says prison time is doing him good.

"Many people might think this odd, but parting with my property will not be unbearably painful for me," he said in a wistful article in Vedomosti business daily.

"Like many, many prisoners before me, both well-known and unknown, I should say 'thank you' to prison. It has given me months of intense contemplation, a time to re-examine the many sides of life."

"I have realized that wealth on its own, especially vast wealth, in no way makes a person free... I had to close my eyes to a lot of things, and make my peace with a lot, for the sake of my wealth, to keep it and grow it. I didn't just run my property, it ran me.

"I would like to warn the young people of today, those who will soon be in positions of power. Don't be jealous of wealthy people ... Wealth opens new avenues, but it enslaves your creative faculties and takes over your personality," he said.

True or untrue?

If he was offered his old life back, would he drop those comments like a hot revolver in a police raid?

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/12/28...reut/index.html

Cowperson

[Vulcan]

Of course it's true, but it is possible to keep your wealth and your moralty,innocence,etc. too. It's just very difficult.

[browna]

To save his own neck when he gets out, he has to play up the "changed man" angle to protect himself from those he pi$$ed off , extorted, etc, when he had his position in power.
With all the shady business practices in Russia, he plays his cards right, he can be a valuable asset with all his contacts and "favours" he has to call in after all these years, to a future employer.