Individual birthday greetings, from Alla Gerber, Mikhail Kasyanov and Nikita Belykh

My very dear Mikhail,

I think that today you have learnt so much that is interesting and admirable about yourself that, in all probability, you had never suspected before. I join in this chorus and want to say that for me my future and that of my family are unthinkable without meeting you.

I strongly believe that this will happen soon — and then I shall tell you more things about yourself!

A bientot
Your faithful friend
Alla Gerber

In 1996 Alla Gerber, writer and journalist, became president of the Holocaust Foundation in Moscow.


Dear Mikhail Khodorkovsky,

Please accept my heartfelt greetings on this day!

Sadly, our hopes for rapid and fundamental changes in Russia and for an end to this “cannibalism” have not come true. I am very happy that you continue to stand firm and do not let yourself be drawn into different forms of game-playing. I wish you and your family health, inner calm and kind regards.

Yours most sincerely
Mikhail Kasyanov

Yeltsin’s last finance minister, Mikhail Kasyanov served as prime minister of the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin from summer 2000 until his dismissal in February 2004. Today an opposition politician, he was prevented from standing in the 2008 presidential elections.


Dear Mikhail Khodorkovsky,

On behalf of the Union of Right Forces, and for my own part, I wish you a happy birthday.

Five years have passed since the beginning of the Yukos affair, an event which became a landmark on the way to a reversal of civil and political liberty in Russia.

We would very much like this shameful campaign of persecution against independent business and independent views to end and that all unlawfully prosecuted individuals can finally regain their freedom. I believe that Russia will one day wake from this authoritarian nightmare and take the democratic path of development.

With honour and dignity you have met the harsh ordeals fate has dealt you. Be brave and do not lose hope!

Respectfully yours
Nikita Belykh

From 1999 to the 2003 elections the Union of Right Forces was one of the genuinely liberal and democratic parties in the Duma.