‘Russia puts Khodorkovsky on international wanted list’

Russian investigators said on Wednesday that top Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been put on the international wanted list as Moscow ramps up pressure on a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this month the Investigative Committee, which reports directly to Putin, charged the former oil tycoon in absentia with organising the 1998 murder of a mayor in Siberia, a move supporters say is aimed at silencing the self-exiled Kremlin foe.

Khodorkovsky, 52, was also charged with the attempted murders of two other people.

“Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been put on the international wanted list,” spokesman for the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said in a statement.

He also said that following a request from investigators a Russian court had ordered the arrest of the former tycoon, who lives abroad and spends much of his time in London.

Khodorkovsky’s spokeswoman Kulle Pispanen dismissed the announcement as political pressure, adding it would not affect him.

“Mikhail Borisovich will by no means limit his movements because of the hysterical actions of the Kremlin ghouls,” Pispanen said, referring to the former business magnate by his first name and patronymic.

Markin on Wednesday reiterated the charges against Khodorkovsky.

On Tuesday, investigators raided the apartments of employees of Khodorkovsky’s Moscow-based Open Russia group, set up to help nurture civil society in the country, as well as its offices.