Below is an English translation of Platon Lebedev’s first, exclusive, interview after his release from prison.  It was broadcast on REN TV, the Russian TV station, on Saturday, January 25, 2014.

At the start of the piece, Platon Lebedev is looking through the window of his house at a mountain ash tree and recollects that it was just a  small bush at the time of his arrest.

– Is everything at home the way it was?.. (asks the interviewer whilst they both survey the room)

– No, well, some small details here have probably changed.  To be honest, this is my first opportunity to look it over, the same as you.  I haven’t had a chance for a particularly close look yet.  That painting over there’s the same.  The television is definitely different, and they’ve taken the table away someplace.

The narrator then explains that they filmed Platon Lebedev at his home, in the Moscow region, where he had arrived just a few hours previously. There wasn’t a lot of time to conduct the interview  – it was literally two hours to air time and they were trying to make it on time.  And besides, they didn’t want to keep Platon Lebedev away from his family for too long.  They were also present in the house.

– How many hours ago, exactly, did they release you?

– I got out sometime just a bit after ten…

– That means it hasn’t been 24 hours yet?

– No.

– You never did ask for a pardon, unlike Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and why not?

– It was already de facto pointless.

– Was your release connected with some understanding that was agreed during the negotiations for the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky?  Or was it just a coincidence, as the saying goes, in time and space?

– It may not be quite right to use the word “understanding”.  The question here is, are we actually free?  I will explain, for now, we have been released from prison, but from the point of view of being able to take decisions about life in the future, our hands are still tied.

– Everybody’s worried for some reason, what’s next?

– Next we’re going to try to live and work.

– Are you going to try to live here in Russia, or will you leave?

You can’t be so black or white – either we stay or we leave.  I was involved in international business.   I was the director of an international investment holding company.  And by virtue of my life and the line of my work I was always both in Russia and overseas.  And besides, I enjoyed being able to travel with family to relax not only in Russia, but beyond the confines of Russia.  The same thing is true for my work.  Now Khodorkovsky and I simply don’t have such a free choice of opportunities.  I would say it like this:  time will soon tell. For now, I’ve just come out of prison and I was given only one document – my Russian identity card.

-You haven’t got a passport that you can travel with?    

What kind of travel document could I have after being in prison for eleven years?  So for now we’ll get ourselves a good night’s sleep, catch our breath a bit and get our bearings, and then the procedure for getting a foreign travel passport will slowly and gradually get going.  And after that we’ll see:  will they give me a foreign travel passport…?  Only after I get the answer will I be able to give you an answer to the question of whether  there’s even a chance to travel abroad, for whatever reason.

So  for now you can’t even meet with your former business partner and your friend Mikhail Khodorkovsky – he can’t travel to Russia, and you can’t travel across the border because you haven’t got a passport.

I can’t for now.  There is a possibility that they won’t give me a foreign travel passport.  Or they could even give me a passport but then refuse to let me travel across the border because, as you mentioned earlier,  I’m a debtor.

So have you had a chance to speak with Mikhail Khodorkovsky yet?

He was probably one of the first to call me.  His voice was quivering with excitement, he wasn’t so much talking as shouting.  He was very happy.  One of the topics we happened to discuss was when we’ll be able to give each other a hug and get together.

And that’s exactly what’s not clear…

You know, we tell everybody that we’re friends, but to each other we’re almost brothers.  Now if they’d let me leave, for example, at least just to get a check-up – I don’t like to talk about this, but I’ve got some aches and pains that have accumulated over a term like that and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some of them looked at – maybe in the middle of February, at the end of February, the two of us will try to cross paths someplace.

You were a very rich person before your arrest, but now, are you a comfortably off person?

I would say it like this:  I’ve been a comfortably off person for a long time already.  Since the beginning of the ’90s, I believe, if memory serves me correctly.  They bankrupted YUKOS, and the bulk of the wealth disappeared.

Well, can you afford not to have to work?

Probably not, but we’ll see.  Although in 11 years I’ve accumulated so many debts to my wife, my children, and everybody really, that I’m going to have to work, looking over my shoulder of course, in order to pay back these debts as well.  My youngest daughter’s age is practically the same as the length of my term.  And for a father to meet with a child in prison…  I saw Dasha for the first time – if we don’t count when she was really small, because I did at least have a chance to give her a bath before the arrest – anyway, the first time I saw her was out beyond the Arctic Circle, in Kharp.  They brought in this little bundle.  True, she did already know how to talk and actually saw papa for the first time.

And now <Dasha> is here?

Yes.  She’s out skating.  Everything’s normal.

Did she recognize you?

Of course.

And the older children?

My older daughter and son were in Velsk, we all came back to Moscow together from there.

Have you discussed your plans with your family?  Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said in no uncertain terms that he’s not going to get involved in politics, but that he will be involved in civic activity.  Have you discussed big plans like that together with the family, or is it still too early to talk about this?

If the authorities are not going to restrict my movements, that means I’ll still be able to do the things I know how to do – which also means that I’ll most likely be doing what I did before.

Business?

Okay, let’s call it business.

But not politics?

In our country successful business is always politics.

But not pure politics?

No, I don’t find pure politics interesting.  But all in all, I think I’m going to surprise you in time.  But this will have to be the topic of a separate conversation.