SRB has posted a translation of a letter from Mikhail Khodorkovsky which was leaked to Ekho Moskvy, in which he comments on the elections. The story made the news in France and Germany, but in English I haven’t seen anything besides this AFP article. I didn’t initially post anything about the letter because it was not intended to have been a public communication – just a private correspondence. Thus these words shouldn’t be interpreted as though Mikhail is issuing a statement. I fear there will be some misunderstanding over this as usual, and I see the point of the very first commenter, Kolya, who remarked that “The commenters here are a cynical crowd and Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a loaded name. However, if you ignore who wrote the letter and just judge it according to its merits, are there any valid criticisms to it?”