RUSSIA - Mar 29 - Khodorkovsky Hits Moscow's Business Elite.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil tycoon languishing in jail since last October facing $1 bn in fraud and tax evasion charges, turns on his former allies among the business elite and praises Pres. Putin. In what appears to be an attempt to gain a more lenient approach in his case, Khodorkovsky's self-critical declaration in the daily business newspaper Vedomosti marks a sharp change in tone from his previous defiance over the privatisations of the 1990s. He says in a 3,000-word article the liberals had only themselves to blame for their political defeat in parliamentary elections last December after enriching themselves over the past decade while failing to take into account the views of ordinary Russians. He argues that Putin deserves support as someone who while "probably neither a liberal nor a democrat is more liberal and democratic than 70% of our population" and a guarantor of "the stability of our country" who limited the influence of nationalist forces.

(The comments distanced Khodorkovsky from some of his own business partners, notably including Leonid Nevzlin, who fled Russia and criticised Putin during an investigation into the business affairs of Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company, which Khodorkovsky controlled before his incarceration. Khodorkovsky's views are shared by many Russian analysts and politicians, and he has even voiced some of them in the past in private. But such a public statement, written from the Moscow cell where has been held in pre-trial detention since October, is a sharp shift in emphasis. Russian political analysts said it showed clear symptoms of an attempt to reconcile with Putin. While making no specific references to the criminal charges against him, Khodorkovsky was far less strident in his defence of the privatisations, including the one by which he gained control of Yukos.

(One analyst was quoted later as saying of Khodorkovsky's article: "This shows his efforts to express his own thoughts after he has been deprived of his voice. He still has to persuade people that these are not just games". A former employee of Khodorkovsky was quoted as adding: "The chances that he will be released on bail are very small" - see News Service No. 14 of last week's Diplomat).