Russia orders re-arrest of Kremlin critic Khodorkovsky

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

Russia issued an international arrest warrant Wednesday for a longtime Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon who spent 10 years in jail, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was accused earlier this month of helping to arrange the murder of a Siberian mayor in 1998. Wednesday's warrant is also related to a probe into a privatization deal at a pro-democracy group he founded.

Khodorkovsky, now based in London, denies the charges. Russian investigators nevertheless announced his arrest in absentia and called for an international manhunt.

Maria Logan, spokeswoman for Khodorkovsky, told the Associated Press he was unlikely to turn himself in.

Khodorkovsky was previously arrested in 2003 and convicted of tax evasion and fraud. He denied the charges and said they came as a result of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that went sour. He was pardoned by Putin ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi last year.

"They've gone mad," Khodorkovsky said in a statement posted on the website of Open Russia, the movement he founded to lobby for political change in Russia. "An arrest in absentia without any obvious facts."

He made the comments after investigators raided the organization's offices in Moscow and searched the homes of several of its employees.