Mikhail Khodorkovsky, declared by Moscow to be a foreign agent and included in the list of extremists and terrorists, faces a new fine for violating the regulations regulating the activities of foreign agents, TASS reported, citing a court decision.
He could be fined up to 50,000 rubles for his book "How to Kill a Dragon", which the Moscow City Court declared "extremist".
It was previously reported that bailiffs had begun a search for the writer's property. Since 2005, nine enforcement proceedings have been initiated against Khodorkovsky to collect debts totaling over 17.4 billion rubles, mainly for unpaid taxes, fines, fees and state duties, as well as two fines for violating the rules for acting as a foreign agent, in the amount of 30,000 and 50,000 rubles, respectively.
Khodorkovsky, convicted on two criminal charges, was pardoned by the Russian President on December 20, 2013 and released from prison. On December 23, 2015, he was arrested again in absentia and put on the international wanted list for the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk, Vladimir Petukhov. The case against him for spreading fake news about the Russian armed forces has been sent to court.
On Saturday, he warned Europe to prepare for a long-term confrontation with Russia, regardless of how Moscow's war against Ukraine unfolds, wrote "Politico", quoted by news.bg.
"We should expect a kind of Cold War to last at least ten years", the former oil tycoon predicted this week at a private event in Brussels.
According to the exiled businessman, the only deterrent against further Russian aggression against Europe during that period would be for President Vladimir Putin to be convinced that the West posed a real military threat.
During the Cold War, which lasted almost half a century, the Soviet Union and the West worked to undermine each other each other without risking open conflict in Europe and potential nuclear war. Senior European and NATO officials now claim that Russia is reviving its policy of attrition, using hybrid warfare tactics to destabilize the West and sow division.
Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade behind bars in Putin's prison system and now lives in London, downplayed the effectiveness of Western sanctions in influencing the Kremlin, saying they "put some pressure on the Russian economy, but nothing dramatic."
He was equally skeptical that Ukraine's long-running drone campaign against Russian oil refineries would cripple the Kremlin's war machine.
"Even the most powerful drone, even a Tomahawk missile, can hit at most about two hectares," explained Khodorkovsky, the former owner of the oil giant "Yukos" and once the richest man in Russia.
"A typical facility in Siberia usually covers 1,500 hectares. The damage done is equivalent to stepping on someone's foot," he pointed out.
In reality, he said, the only time Putin's grip on power could have been broken was in the first two years after the start of his full-scale invasion - if Russia had suffered a decisive military defeat in Ukraine.
That window has now closed, Khodorkovsky summed up.
However, he added wryly that "we have a tradition that our dictators tend to leave somewhere between 70 and 80 years old".
Putin turned 73 in October this year.