How to Slay a Dragon Building a New Russia After Putin

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is one of the most astute observers of today’s Russia. Imprisoned for a decade in Russia’s prisons on politically motivated charges, he knows all too well the best and the worst of his country. He now lives in exile and, like many Russians who live abroad, he longs for the day when he can return to a free and democratic Russia.

This book is Khodorkovsky’s account of what is happening in Russia today and what could happen in the future. Putin will not last forever: sooner or later, there will be a post-Putin era. But Russia’s history has been deeply shaped by an autocratic trap: a revolution against an autocracy has produced another autocracy, followed by another revolution and another autocracy, and so on. If Russia is to find its place as a constructive partner in a global community of civilized nations, then it has to escape this vicious cycle.

How to Slay a Dragon is Khodorkovsky’s account of his own journey and of how the vicious cycle of Russian history can be broken. He charts a pathway towards a parliamentary federal republic which would enable Russia to become a free and democratic society, living in peace and without dragons.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is Russia’s most famous living dissident in exile. Once regarded as Russia’s richest man, he criticised endemic corruption at a televised meeting with President Putin in early 2003, was arrested later that year and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Eventually released in December 2013 and forced into exile, he now lives in London. He established the Open Russia Foundation in 2001 with the aim of building and strengthening civil society in Russia, and he relaunched the Open Russia movement in September 2014. As the leader of the Russian opposition in exile, Khodorkovsky works to promote political reform in Russia and advocates an alternative vision for his country’s future.

Introduction: My Path into Politics and What I Hope to Achieve



PART I: HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THE OLD DRAGON?

1. The Strategy for Victory: Peaceful Protest, or Peaceful Uprising?

2. Bringing the Protesters Together: Many Parties or a Single Party?

3. How to Cultivate Protest: Go Underground or Emigrate?

4. The Point of No Return: The Streets or the Commanding Heights?

5. How to Organise the New Order: Constitutional Democracy or Democracy by Decree?

6. How to Bring an End to the War: Fight to a Victorious Outcome, Capitulate or Seek a Compromise?

7. How to Defeat an Internal Counter-Revolution: Purge the Old Guard or Try to Correct Them?

8. How to Control the Man with a Gun: A Task for the Party or for the Secret Services?

9. How to Create a Civil Service: Employ Our Own Weak Staff or the Best from Abroad?

10. What’s Meant by “A Turn to the Left”: A Social Welfare State or a Socialist State?

11. How Do We Achieve Economic Justice: Nationalisation or Honest Privatisation?



PART II: HOW DO WE AVOID CREATING A NEW DRAGON?

12. The Choice of Civilisation: An Empire or a Nation State?

13. The Geopolitical Choice: To Be a Superpower or To Consider the National Interests?

14. The Historical Choice: Muscovy or Gardarika (which has nothing to do with Gaidar)?

15. The Political Choice: Democracy? Or a Return to the Terror of the Oprichnina?

16. The Economic Choice: Monopoly or Competition?

17. The Social Choice: A Turn to the Left or a Turn to the Right?

18. The Intellectual Choice: A Word in Freedom or Glasnost on a Reservation?

19. The Constitutional Choice: A Parliamentary Republic or a Presidential One?

20. The Legal Choice: The Dictatorship of the Law or a State Based on the Rule of Law?

21. The Moral Choice: Justice or Mercy?



Conclusion: The Dragon in Custody