Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Russian political prisoner, will join Ukrainian politician Yuriy Lutsenko and modern Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya to open a Ukraine-Russia dialogue forum in Kiev on April 24-25. The forum, entitled, “Ukraine-Russia: the Dialogue” will be organised by Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia Foundation, the Third Republic of Ukraine movement and the PEN club of Russia. It will bring together leading economists, scholars, artists, experts, journalists, teachers, doctors, civic activists and human rights defenders, to show solidarity, to strengthen the ties between various groups from Russian and Ukrainian society, and to counteract the information war that has been unleashed by the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky proposed organising a congress of the Russian and Ukrainian intelligentsia in Kiev when he delivered a public speech at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute last month. He said in that speech: “A distinct role in preserving this aura of mutual relations between peoples belongs to public opinion leaders; only they can stand up at least in some measure to the uncurbed propaganda that is taking place today on the federal channels of Russian television.”

The Forum will feature two days of roundtables and discussions on topics including independent media, culture, religion, science, education, economy, and society. Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Dmitry Bykov, Viktor Schenderovich, Mikhail Schats, Tatiana Lazareva, Aleksandra Koval, Anatoly Borsyuk and Mykola Veresen are among the participants so far confirmed.

The Forum will close on Friday, April 25 at 8:00 pm with a rock concert featuring bands and other artists from both Ukraine and Russia, including “BoomBox” and “Nochnye Snaipery”.

The Forum and the Concert will take place at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex located at 55 Chervonoarmiyska, Kiev.

For updates, please follow the Forum on forum.khodorkovsky.ru

For media and registration inquiries please contact Maya Schokalo at press.dialog@gmail.com or on +38 0673093219. Accreditation will be open until 6:00 pm on April 23, 2014.