Post date: Dec 21, 2013 6:26:48 PM
Alexander Rahr, the German political scientist who assisted former German FM Hans Dietrich Genscher in bringing former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to Germany, describes Khodorkovsky's last hours in Russia saying he was woken up at 2 am to be told he will go abroad and says it was a result of Genscher's long talks with President Putin and a triumph for Germany's secret diplomacy.
BERLIN, GERMANY (DECEMBER 20, 2013) (RTVI) - A German political scientist of the Russian descent who was involved in former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's flight to Germany after an unexpected pardon from PresidentVladimir Putin described in a television interview the last hours of Khodorkovsky in Russia.
Alexander Rahr, who was seen in the photo of a handshake between Khodorkovsky and former German Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher upon former tycoon's arrival in Berlin, spoke to a Russian-language RTVi television channel from his home in the German capital late on Friday (December 20).Rahr said that Khodorkovsky found out he would be released from prison after 10 years behind the bars when he was woken up in the middle of the night and told that he would be sent abroad.
"This morning he (Khodorkovsky) was woken up at two o'clock in the morning. The chief of the concentration camp held a talk with him and said that he will now be released to go abroad and asked if he is ready to go abroad. He agreed. Then he was driven into the town where a helicopter arrived, and he was flown by helicopter to St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg he climbed into a private jet which flew for him from Germany. He boarded the plane and in an hour and a half or two hours he arrived at Berlin Schoenefeld," Alexander Rahr said.
He also said that he spent some time with Khodorkovsky on the way from the airport and at Adlon hotel where Khodorkovsky is staying, according to Rahr.
"People constantly call him, he talks to the press, he talks to his friends, he talks to his colleagues. He is very happy that after 10 years he walked free and that he is alive. He is in good spirits, he has a burning desire to speak out," said Rahr.
"His mood is very enthusiastic, his eyes are glowing, he wants to speak, and speak, and speak. And he has things to say. He is extremely pragmatic about the situation in Russia, he is extremely pragmatic about the situation in the world and he is very interested in it," he added.
Rahr also said that Genscher, credited for his role in breaking the Berlin Wall, was instrumental in securing Khodorkovsky's freedom.
"All his release, and all this Khodorkovsky's cause, all this Khodorkovsky's case was a matter ofGermany's secret diplomacy. And thanks God Germany still has those secret or semi-secret channels that other European countries or America probably do not have anymore with Russia and which in such situations can work," Rahr said.
"Genscher was able to break another wall, and after long talks with Putin he achieved that Khodorkovsky is now in Germany," he added.
He did not elaborate on what Khodorkovsky's plans might be saying he will tell about it himself at a press conference on Sunday (December 22). He said though Khodorkovsky would unlikely pursue a political career.
"I don't think he will be involved in politics. I can most certainly exclude that. But you know what role he can play. Maybe I'm exaggerating here a bit, but he can embark on Solzhenitsyn's path who, after his flight to the West, and a forced one, in 1973 also started in Germany and then moved toSwitzerland and to America - he started writing books, speaking, thinking about future, and of course thinking about Russia," said Rahr.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel prize-winning novelist, was expelled from the Soviet Union but returned to Russia 20 years later after the break-up of the USSR.