Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Court Rejects Khodorkovsky Request To Serve Time Near Moscow

Khodorkovsky is serving his prison time near the Chinese border, some six time zones from Moscow (file photo) (AFP)

April 7, 2006 -- A Russian court has rejected an appeal for jailed Yukos oil firm founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky to be allowed to serve his prison term closer to Moscow, where he could be more easily visited by his family.

TEXT SIZE - +

April 07, 2006

Khodorkovsky is serving his eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion at a prison camp in Chita in eastern Siberia, six time zones from Moscow on the Chinese border.

A Moscow district court ruled yesterday that the decision to send Khodorkovsky to Chita was lawful.

In another development, the new vice president of Yukos, Vasily Aleksanyan, was arrested by authorities Thursday on suspicion of embezzlement and money-laundering.

Yukos, once Russia's biggest oil company, has been crippled by prosecutions and government orders to repay billions of dollars in back taxes. Russian authorities deny that steps against the firm have been politically motivated.

(compiled from agency reports)

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More