God and the President

Khodorkovsky supporters in Chita have appealed to both today

On the fifth anniversary of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest his supporters in Chita lit candles for him in the city’s cathedral church in front of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God.

“We ordered prayers for the health and good fortune of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Svetlana Bakhmina, Platon Lebedev, Vasily Aleksanyan and all who have been arrested in connection with the Yukos affair,” said Marina Savvateyeva, deputy head of the public committee in support of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

They ordered forty days of prayers for the health of Svetlana Bakhmina. “I think the timing is symbolic,” suggested Savvateyeva. “45 days are set aside to examine the petition for a pardon that Svetlana submitted five days ago. Therefore, all the remaining time the priest in our church will be praying for her.”

Today the fifth anniversary was also recalled in a quite secular fashion. Yesterday posters began to appear in different parts of the city: “See sense, Mr President! Khodorkovsky is in prison and the country is in crisis!”