Vasily Alexanyan died

Relatives of the former Yukos executive who was diagnosed with HIV several months after he was arrested say he has died of complications caused by AIDS. Vasily Alexanyan's family announced that he died Monday, October 3, 2011, at his home in Moscow at age 39.

Alexanyan, vice president at Russia's largest oil company, was arrested in 2006 on embezzlement and money-laundering charges.

The charges followed what was widely seen as Kremlin revenge against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is still serving a 13-year sentence on embezzlement and money-laundering charges.

Following the diagnosis, Alexanyan contracted tuberculosis and went nearly blind before his release on bail in 2008.

Charges against him were dropped in June 2010.

Our thoughts are going to Vasily Alexanyan's family and to all others who are deprived from their fundamental rights and their families.

Prisoner Khodorkovsky

On Friday, July 29, 2011, The Belgian TV-channel Canvas presented the story of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"The world didn't need to wait for the verdict of the trial to know it would be "guilty". The Russian government reserved the camps in Siberia for the enemies of the state. It's true, few people did benefit more from the collapse of the Soviet Union than Khodorkovsky. But he managed to rescue declining state enterprises and made a fortune. A fortune which implied political influence.

When Vladimir Putin apperared, he didn't like those rich entrepreneurs. Khodorkovsky had to become an example. This is the story of a very peculiar court case, with Vladimir Putin acting as the judge."