Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the founder of democracy and human-rights initiative Open Russia. One of the earliest supporters of democratic change in Russia, Khodorkovsky criticised endemic corruption at a televised meeting with President Putin in early 2003. Later that same year he was arrested, and jailed on charges of tax evasion and fraud, charges, which he denied and vigorously defended. Khodorkovsky was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International; and finally released in December 2013. Today, Khodorkovsky continues to advocate for a strong and just state, committed to observing human rights, free and fair elections, and the rule of law. My Fellow Prisoners is his first book. Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney covered Mikhail Khodorkovsky's life story in his film Citizen K (2020).