AFP, Moscow :
Russia said on Wednesday it had issued an international arrest warrant for top opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as Moscow ramped up the pressure on a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.
The announcement from the Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement body which reports directly to Putin, came nearly two years to the day since the Kremlin strongman stunned Russia by announcing that his political enemy, who had spent a decade in prison, would be pardoned and set free.
Khodorkovsky said he might apply for asylum in Britain, and that the arrest warrant showed Putin still saw him as a threat.
“Definitely I’m considering asking for asylum in the UK,” the Kremlin critic told the BBC.
“I’m considered by President Putin as a threat, economically, because of the possible seizure of Russian assets abroad, and politically, as someone who will potentially help democratic candidates in the coming 2016 elections.”
Russia said on Wednesday it had issued an international arrest warrant for top opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as Moscow ramped up the pressure on a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.
The announcement from the Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement body which reports directly to Putin, came nearly two years to the day since the Kremlin strongman stunned Russia by announcing that his political enemy, who had spent a decade in prison, would be pardoned and set free.
Khodorkovsky said he might apply for asylum in Britain, and that the arrest warrant showed Putin still saw him as a threat.
“Definitely I’m considering asking for asylum in the UK,” the Kremlin critic told the BBC.
“I’m considered by President Putin as a threat, economically, because of the possible seizure of Russian assets abroad, and politically, as someone who will potentially help democratic candidates in the coming 2016 elections.”
