Russian Court Orders Arrest Of Putin Critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky

 

(FILE) A picture taken 30 May 2005 shows Imprisoned former head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky stands in the defendant's box in the courtroom in Moscow. The former boss of Russian oil giant Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was attacked in his prison cell this week by a fellow inmate who slashed his face with a knife, Khordokovsky's press service said in a statement 15 April 2006. AFP PHOTO / TATYANA MAKEYEVA (Photo credit should read TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP/Getty Images)

Mikhail Khodorkovsky (TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Russian Court Orders Arrest Of Putin Critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Khodorkovsky currently spends much of his time in London.

CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS An international arrest warrant has been issued for former businessman and oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky whom police accuse of ordering the killing of the mayor of a Siberian oil town, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

Khodorkovsky, who denies the charges, was arrested in 2003 after falling out with Vladimir Putin and later convicted of tax evasion and fraud in a trial he said was politically-motivated.

Released in 2013, he now spends a lot of time in London.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement police had concluded that Khodorkovsky had ordered subordinates to kill Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, in 1998.

Markin said the motive was financial and linked to Petukhov’s demands for Yukos to pay taxes he said it was avoiding.

Russia announced the warrant a day after armed police raided the Moscow offices of a pro-democracy movement founded by Khodorkovsky.

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