Khodorkovsky's Jailhouse Interview

On June 10, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of Yukos Oil and a man once thought to be worth $15 billion, was whisked out of Moscow to prison in an undisclosed location in Russia. Before he began his second prison sentence, he sent a message: Be very wary of doing business in Russia.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Khodorkovsky, 47, warned that in Russia "nobody is protected from lawlessness." He argued that the country is so bogged down by corruption that its economy can neither operate efficiently nor obtain enough investment to meet the goals of its leaders. Russia, he also says, is too dependent on oil and gas revenues. "Under the current political and economic model, to get a 10 percent growth rate for the Russian economy, the oil price would have to remain solidly above $200 a barrel," he says. Oil currently trades at around $100 a barrel.