Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, looks from behind a glass enclosure at a court room in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, looks from behind a glass enclosure at a court room in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010.
A Russian judge sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovksy to 14 years in jail for embezzlement and money laundering at Yukos, the oil company he once controlled. He'll get credit for the time he's been detained since his arrest in 2003, as Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight year term for tax evasion. But the AP reports, his convictions are seen by many as political payback from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who didn't like it when Khodorkovsky funded opposition political candidates and wondered aloud about Kremlin corruption.
Russian paper, Gazeta.ru, reports the presiding judge in Khodorkovsky's case was pressured over the weekend to impose a tough sentence.
NPR's David Greene interviewed Khodorkovky via written questions earlier this year.
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