The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to pay out nearly €1.9bn to shareholders of Yukos, the oil producer that the government had dismantled over a decade ago.

Ukraine is practically in a state of war with Russia, it was claimed tonight as Moscow warned Russian-leaning eastern regions have plunged into lawlessness.

The freed members of the Pussy Riot punk band said yesterday they still wanted Russian president Vladimir Putin out of power and would like ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to replace him.

The two remaining jailed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been released from prison but one says the amnesty bill that gave her freedom was a Kremlin public relations stunt.

Russia’s most famous prisoner and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky walked out of jail after more than 10 years behind bars, immediately flying to Germany following his surprise pardon by President Vladimir Putin.

Europe’s top human rights court yesterday dismissed claims that Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was prosecuted for political reasons, but said some procedures during a trial against him were unfair.

Ukraine is becoming a dangerous mix of authoritarianism and corrupt capitalism, writes Tatiana Zhurzhenko

PRIME Minister Vladimir Putin vehemently rejected opposition calls for a rerun of the parliamentary election, accusing those who organised massive protests against vote fraud of working to weaken Russia at the West’s behest.

FORMER Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday described Russia as an imitation of democracy and accused its rulers of conceit and contempt for voters, in his harshest criticism of the government yet.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has described Russia as an imitation of democracy and accused its rulers of conceit and contempt for voters, in his harshest criticism of the government yet.

Officials of the Moscow airport where a suicide bomber killed 35 people must bear responsibility for security failures there, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today.

A LAWYER for jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky yesterday appealed his sentence of six more years in prison, a punishment seen as payback for challenging Vladimir Putin’s power and which was widely condemned in the West.

Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is appealing against his sentence of six more years in prison, a punishment seen as revenge for challenging ex-President Vladimir Putin’s power.

Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison yesterday following a trial seen as payback for his defiance of Vladimir Putin.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sentenced to a further six years in prison following a trial seen by many as payback for his defiance of Vladimir Putin's power.

The judge in the case against jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky finished his third day of reading the verdict without announcing the prison sentence today.

RUSSIA yesterday tartly told the West to keep out of its domestic affairs after “unacceptable” criticism by the United States and Europe of the new guilty verdict for jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Russia’s foreign ministry has angrily rejected Western criticism of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s conviction in a second criminal case, saying it amounted to pressuring the court.

MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY was convicted of theft and money laundering charges yesterday, a verdict that will likely keep the jailed oil tycoon who was once Russia’s richest man behind bars for several more years.

A judge declared former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of theft and money laundering charges in his second trial today, Russian news agencies reported.

A Russian court today rejected jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's request for parole.

The curtain finally fell on the shattered Yukos oil empire today, with a mysterious auction providing a dramatic conclusion to the politically charged, four-year demise of the company that was once Russia’s biggest oil producer.

Russian prosecutors said today that jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner organised the theft of oil worth £16bn (€24bn), in the first details of new embezzlement and money laundering charges filed this week against Russia’s once-richest man.

Russia's top prosecutor said his office wants to question fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky the probe of ex-security agent Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning death, Russian news agencies reported today.

Detectives in the UK investigating the death of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko were tonight planning to fly to Moscow in their hunt for clues into the dissident’s poisoning, sources have confirmed.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has lost an appeal against his eight-year jail term for fraud and tax evasion.

Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been treated in hospital after another prisoner slashed him in the face while he slept, his lawyer said today.

Russian bailiffs announced today that they were moving to collect more $600m (€488m) from jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky that was awarded by a Moscow court, a Russian news agency reported.

A former senior figure in the Yukos oil company who was wanted by the Russian government on fraud charges will not be extradited, a judge ruled today.

A local government official today denied that there were high levels of radiation around the Russian Far East prison camp where oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sent to serve an eight-year sentence.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sent to the prison where he will serve out his eight-year sentence on charges including tax evasion and fraud, the Interfax news agency reported today.

Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has begun a hunger strike to support his colleague Platon Lebedev, who was moved into an isolation cell last week, according to a statement.

A MOSCOW court declared oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of charges yesterday in a trial widely criticised as politically motivated, sentencing him to nine years in prison minus time served.

A court declared oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of charges today in a trial widely criticised as politically motivated, sentencing him to nine years in prison minus time served.

A Moscow court has today declared tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of charges including fraud and tax evasion, and sentenced him to nine years in prison minus time already served.

THE reading of the verdict in the trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky entered its 10th day yesterday, amid speculation that the laborious process was close to completion.

Judges in Moscow are in their ninth day of reading the verdict in oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial, going over details of tax evasion charges, as the politically-charged case approached its end.

Judges in Moscow dropped a forgery charge against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today as they renewed reading the voluminous verdict in the closing act of the most closely watched trial in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

The Moscow court reading the verdict in the trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today said it considers him guilty of fraud, but under a section of the criminal code that offers a slightly lesser sentence than the original charge.

Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky returns to court for a fourth day for the gruelling reading of the verdict in his fraud case today, with his frustrated lawyers speculating that the numbing pace is aimed at killing interest in the biggest trial in post-Soviet Russia.

THE Moscow court reading the verdict in the politically charged trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky adjourned yesterday without pronouncing a final decision, postponing the process into a third day.

The judge reading out the lengthy verdict in oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s fraud and tax evasion trial today said the court considers his guilt to be proven.

Alex Nicholson, Moscow

The Russian court reading the complex verdict in the fraud and tax evasion trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has adjourned until tomorrow and his supporters said the phrasing of the first portion left little doubt he would be found guilty.