Jailed Russian tycoon on hunger strike

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.

In the statement read in part by Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Anton Drel on NTV television, the Russian oil magnate claimed President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin was behind decisions by prison authorities to transfer Lebedev to the isolation cell and move him to a more crowded cell with fewer amenities.

“On August 19 my comrade Platon Lebedev was moved to a 32-square-foot isolation cell. Platon is seriously ill,” the statement said. “It is obvious that they threw my friend into the isolation cell to avenge me, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for my articles and interviews.

“Let the Kremlin think it is showing strength, in fact it is a display of their weakness and fear,” it said, according to Drel. “Being in no condition to enter an open political discussion with me, they use the last weapons – an isolation cell and a common cell.”

In an interview published in a Russia newspaper this month, Khodorkovsky repeated his frequent contention that the prosecutor’s office and trial judge were under intense political pressure, and said he believed his verdict would eventually be overturned.

Khodorkovsky has criticised the Kremlin in a range of articles and interviews, and recently said he was considering running in an upcoming parliamentary by-election.

Kremlin critics have said that may have prompted the decision to move him to a more crowded cell.

In the statement, Khodorkovsky said he had begun a hunger strike – with no food or drink – to show solidarity with Lebedev.

“He knows that he is not alone,” the statement said. “And each of my countrymen in whom the heart of fairness and freedom beats should know: we are together.”

The statement did not say how long Khodorkovsky planned to avoid eating.

The Interfax news agency said Lebedev was moved into the isolation cell for a week.