khodorkovsky

But disagreements between the men appear to be mounting, and Mr. Khodorkovsky's case seems to be particularly divisive.

Indeed, more people were in favour of locking up Mr Khodorkovsky, even though they knew it would benefit only a few Kremlin bureaucrats.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Mr. Khodorkovsky referred to prosecutors and the judge as "criminals" and denounced the case as a sham.

Kirill Rogov, a political observer, has argued that this is now a courtroom where the prosecutors, not Mr Khodorkovsky, are on trial.

He did not support the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oligarch who challenged Mr Putin, and even questioned the prosecutor's tactics.

The defence claimed the trial was political: without it, Mr Khodorkovsky would have been released in two years' time.

That bodes badly for Mr Khodorkovsky's acquittal chances in a new trial that could leave him in jail for 20 more years.

In Russia Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once boss of the Yukos oil company and avowed enemy of Vladimir Putin, went on trial for a second time.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos's ex-boss, stayed in Russia (whereas Mr Berezovsky fled) and is now in a Siberian labour camp.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, delivered a stinging speech on the last day of his trial for embezzling oil.

Mr. Khodorkovsky was tried and convicted of tax fraud and was due to be released this year.

He then joined Menatep, the bank founded and formerly owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon arrested in 2003.

Mr Khodorkovsky's lawyers say they expect him to be handed six more years in prison.

Consider Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of YUKOS oil company until he fell out of favor with Putin.

The raid came on the same day as the two-year embezzlement trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed billionaire, came to a close.

Putting Mr Khodorkovsky in jail, or awarding a large contract to one's own affiliated company, could be justified as a public good.

Russian troops remain in part of Georgia; Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos boss, is still in jail.

In this narrow sense, indeed, the imprisoned Mr Khodorkovsky might be compared to the exiled Andrei Sakharov in the 1980s.

The legacy of Mr Khodorkovsky's oligarchic past is still evident in the ambivalent attitude revealed by opinion polls.

This followed a clash between the two men over corruption, and it later led to the arrest and imprisonment of Mr Khodorkovsky.

Yukos's main shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested, Yukos was dismantled and its assets were swallowed by Rosneft.

Russia showed blatant disregard for judicial independence in its sentencing of regime critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

At home, the best test of Russia's direction in 2010 may be the outcome of the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a jailed former tycoon.

And that may explain why opinion polls reveal more public sympathy for Mr Khodorkovsky in his second trial than in his first.

Now that Mr Khodorkovsky has begun to give evidence, the benches there have become the hottest seats in town.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's appeal against his embezzlement conviction, handed down last December, is also expected some time during the week.

The first case against Mr Khodorkovsky and his former business partner, Platon Lebedev, was a sham.

Khodorkovsky was aggravating, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may be included in the EU sanctions "blacklist" .

That makes the Khodorkovsky case and Russia's lack of a proper judicial system even more worrying.

But opponents believe that Mikhail Khodorkovsky embezzled a large number of state-owned assets, deserved.

Unlike other oligarchs, Mr Khodorkovsky would not choose.

This prompted Mr Khodorkovsky's lawyers to accuse Mr Putin of openly interfering in the court proceedings.

To convict Mr Khodorkovsky this time round would raise doubts over his guilt in the first case: the charges look contradictory.

It was these actions, says Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a veteran human-rights activist, that landed Mr Khodorkovsky in jail.

Having chosen this path, Mr Khodorkovsky has engaged in activities traditional for Russian dissidents and political prisoners.

Mr Putin's crossness is understandable. Mr Khodorkovsky's arrest and trial became a defining moment of his presidency.

Mr Khodorkovsky was accused, among other things, of selling Yukos's oil through offshore trading companies to minimise taxation.

By the same token, nobody had made Mr Fortov sign the letter about Mr Khodorkovsky's trial or hang Mr Putin's portrait on his wall.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has spent the last seven years in jail for frauds and tax evasion.

A free (and popular) Mr Khodorkovsky could yet interfere with this plan by running himself, or backing another candidate.

The jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has gone on trial in Moscow on new charges of embezzlement and money laundering.

The second sham trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former boss of the Yukos oil company, makes a mockery of judicial independence.

Western countries say the Russian court's decision may be related to Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky's personal matters related.

Mr Khodorkovsky's defence team claimed to have evidence that Mr Danilkin was acting under pressure.

The Kremlin has maintained its hardline stance towards Mr Khodorkovsky, who has been convicted of tax evasion and embezzlement.

Khodorkovsky now awaits another trial on fresh charges of embezzlement and money-laundering.

After Mr Khodorkovsky's case, a judge taking instructions from a bureaucrat felt he was in the right.

Khodorkovsky and even the adjacent high-speed Jing-Guang Railroad, transportation to facilitate faster.

Mr Khodorkovsky's verdict will take effect only after an appeal is heard by the Moscow City Court.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose trial is seen as a test of Russia's democracy, has been given a new 14 year prison sentence.

But he bears deep grudges against those, like Mr Khodorkovsky, who he thinks have crossed him.

This part follows the trial and conviction of Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Mr Kondaurov, a former spokesman for the KGB, worked for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who ran and largely owned Yukos.

In the first trial, Mr Khodorkovsky and his partners were accused of tax evasion.

Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Shortly before his arrest Mr Khodorkovsky estimated state corruption at around $30 billion, or 10% of the country's GDP.

This same court, in 2005 Zengyi money laundering, fraud, tax evasion and a series of Khodorkovsky sentenced 8 years imprisonment.

Mr Khodorkovsky's first, eight-year sentence, for fraud and tax evasion, followed his arrest in 2003.

Once Russia's richest man, Mr. Khodorkovsky was arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion in 2003.

Had Mr Khodorkovsky stolen all the oil, how could Yukos have recorded a big profit and underpaid tax?

Stasis is certainly visible in Mr Khodorkovsky's trial.

"As long as Putin and his people control the Kremlin, they'll do everything they can to keep Khodorkovsky in jail for as long as possible. "

Russia's embattled head of Yukos Oil, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, went to jail on charges of fraud and forgery and saw his fortune plunge.

The decision came as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of Yukos, marked his first 1, 000 days behind bars.

This allowed prosecutors to build their case that he and Mr Khodorkovsky had embezzled 350m tonnes of oil from Yukos between 1998 and 2003.

Another theory is that it could help Mr Medvedev to find a politically acceptable solution to the Khodorkovsky case.

The person who is most irritated by Mr Khodorkovsky's enhanced status is Mr Putin.

Many date it to the attack on Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's oil firm, that began three years ago this month;

Mr Khodorkovsky replied to Mr Medvedev's manifesto with one vital question