Alex Gibney’s absorbing new documentary about Mikhail Khodorkovsky charts the
Russian businessman’s transformation from plutocrat to political dissident
If
Vladimir Putin is the enigmatic Mr Hyde of 21st-century Russia, then Mikhail Khodorkovsky is its Dr Jekyll. He’s an oligarch, a plutocrat, a political player and a contemporary of Putin who nonetheless seems to be the good guy. He appears entirely sincere in his commitment to democratic reforms in
Russia and seems to float free of the glowering gangster code of omertà that governs all those who enriched themselves at Putin’s tsarist court. Khodorkovsky first became wealthy as the proprietor of Russia’s first private bank in the Yeltsin 90s. Then he participated in the country’s privatisation scam, whereby impoverished Russian citizens were forced to sell their valuable share certificates to Khodorkovsky and his ilk for a song; Khodorkovsky and others finally loaned money to the near-bankrupt state in return for the right to buy up national utilities later at bargain-basement prices.
Alex Gibney’s absorbing new film shows his remarkable metamorphosis throughout this. While all the other post-Soviet wiseguys just bulked up and looked ever more morose and fractious (there is a startling glimpse of Roman Abramovich who has this characteristic oligarch sulk-frown) Khodorkovsky became smilingly sleek and telegenic as he voiced his political concerns. With close-cropped hair, rimless spectacles and a black sweater tucked into his blue jeans, he looked like a combination of Steve Jobs and Jerry Seinfeld.