he and his partner, platon lebedev, were convicted of charges of tax fraud and embezzlement in two widely criticized trials. amnesty international declared them prisoners of conscience trapped in judicial cortex the answer to political, not legal consideration. his story has come to symbolize russia's turn to authoritarianism under putin. in an impassioned closing arguments following his second trial, he told the judge, "your honor, much more than our two fates are in your hands. here and now, the fate of every citizen in our country is being decided." he has lived in self-imposed exile in switzerland since his release. last month, he relaunched his open russia foundation and seeks to start a civil movement to challenge putin's grip on power. i am pleased to have mikhail khodorkovsky at this table for the first time. welcome. >> hello. >> i look forward to this conversation since we met seven months ago. tell me where you are today in your life as you see it. >> i have tried in the past few months to deal with some of the main tasks i had to deal with in my family. unfortunately, part of

there was also a very difficult situation when platon lebedev was thrown into the dungeon and we were told that he would sit there forever. there were a couple of other unpleasant situations when there was no way out, except to do do this, and that's normal in jail. >> rose: but there were others who also participated in hunger strikes while you were there, not just you? >> of course. but it's hard for me to say how to what extent these people were ready to go all the way. that's their choice, i never told anybody to join in because your attitude to your own life is an extremely personal attitude. >> and how did you get to the point where you are willing to put your life on the line. >> how did you come-- how did you say si have to do this? >> you know, i believe that there is someone that stands, who stands above us, higher than us. i believe that at some point we is all will need to give an answer for what we've done an not done in life before him. and i believe. >> that he does not have a good attitude towards suicide. so i needed it to know, will he understand why i did this or no