Rally came after campaigner was given suspended term for fraud.

A Russian tycoon placed under house arrest in September in a move that rattled markets has been released hours before President Vladimir Putin’s annual televised press conference.

The arrest of a Russian telecoms and oil tycoon has sent shockwaves through the country’s business community, with some fearing a return to the dark days of a decade ago, when the Kremlin asserted its power by imprisoning the country’s then-richest man and expropriating his companies.

The arrest of a Russian telecoms and oil tycoon has sent shockwaves through the country’s business community, with some fearing a return to the dark days of a decade ago, when the Kremlin asserted its power by imprisoning the country’s then-richest man and expropriating his companies.

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.

Two former executives of defunct Russian oil company Yukos Oil have joined the board of Irish explorer Petroceltic.

The United States has announced new sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 17 companies with links to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has urged Western powers to unite on a hard line against Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Crimea crisis.

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.

Three women from the punk band Pussy Riot could face sentence this week in a trial over their “protest prayer” in a church that has transfixed Russia and opened president Vladimir Putin to new accusations of a crackdown on dissent.

Three women who protested against Vladimir Putin in a “punk prayer” on the altar of Russia’s main cathedral have gone on trial in a case seen as a test of the long-time leader’s treatment of dissent during a new presidential term.

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.

Officials say a Moscow court has sentenced a former manager of the Yukos oil company to 15 years in prison on embezzlement charges.

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.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is believed to have bought a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, which floated in London and Moscow last week.

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.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, was sworn in today for a new five-year term as governor of the Russian Far East region of Chukotka.

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.