Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Russian oil tycoon who spent a decade in prison under the reign of President Vladimir Putin, called on his supporters to help influence the nation’s 2016 parliamentary elections as he restarted the Open Russia civil movement.

“The main goal of resistance is elections of all levels, but first and foremost, of course, the 2016 elections to the State Duma, which has become a bulwark of reaction in Russia,” Khodorkovksy wrote on his website during the global online Open Russia forum yesterday. We “need to create an infrastructure that is ready to support any candidate in elections of any level who adheres in practice to the European choice and who is prepared to fight the cancerous tumour that has consumed Russia.”

Khodorkovsky, who is living in exile in Switzerland, also said he’s ready to lead Russia in a crisis situation, according to France’s Le Monde newspaper, which published a video interview with the former main owner of Yukos Oil Co. yesterday. Russia may need constitutional reform that would redistribute some powers from the president toward courts, parliament and civil society, he told Le Monde.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man with a fortune of $15 billion, was freed by a presidential pardon in December. Imprisoned after convictions for tax evasion, money-laundering and oil embezzlement, Khodorkovsky maintained his innocence, saying the cases against him were retribution for financing opposition parties. The Kremlin has denied that.

Open Russia is a foundation created by Yukos shareholders in 2001. It was headed by Khodorkovsky until his arrest in 2003, and operations were suspended in 2006 after Russian prosecutors froze its accounts.