May.18, 2010

An imprisoned former oil tycoon, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, has declared a hunger strike to protest a court decision made earlier this month that extended his term in custody while he stood trial for large-scale money laundering and embezzlement. Mr. Khodorkovsky was the owner of the now bankrupt Yukos oil company. In a letter to the chairman of Russia’s Supreme Court, published on his Web site on Tuesday, Mr. Khodorkovsky said the decision violated amendments to Russian law recently signed by President Dmitri A. Medvedev.