A phone call in the middle of the night

Grigory Pasko, journalist

Recently, I received a phone call in the middle of the night from Andrei Volozhanin – a former zek in the Krasnokamensk colony, who was once assigned the unusual task of overseeing the work of the former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky at a packaging plant in colony #10. And here is how this middle-of-the-night conversation went:

– Grisha, good morning!
– Good night!
– Sorry, I’d forgotten it’s still night over where you are. I’ve got a question: they’re saying that they’ve sentenced Khodorkovsky to 20 years…
– I don’t think so, I think I would have heard about this if they had.
– Okay, I’ll call back later and we’ll talk some more. Or you call me.

Of course I’ll call him back. And quite soon. But what should I tell him, this former zek, who though interested in the fate of Khodorkovsky, has no access to internet.  With the sparse offerings of Russian television, I realized that Volozhanin, like the majority of Russians, is completely in the dark about what is happening in the trial.