Tue Oct 14 11:19:24 UTC 2025: **News Article:**
**Exiled Oligarch Khodorkovsky Faces New Charges in Russia as Crackdown on Dissent Intensifies**
Moscow – The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened a criminal case against exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of establishing a “terrorist organization” and plotting to violently seize power. The charges, announced Tuesday, are reportedly linked to the activities of a Khodorkovsky-backed group that opposes Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The move comes as the Kremlin continues its crackdown on any perceived dissent regarding its military actions, prosecuting individuals and groups both within Russia and abroad who challenge the official narrative.
Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon and once Russia’s wealthiest man, has not yet commented on the new charges. His Anti-War Committee, which has been banned in Russia, also remains silent.
Khodorkovsky’s history with the Kremlin is fraught with conflict. He previously served a decade in a Siberian prison on fraud charges widely seen as politically motivated retaliation for his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. After his release in 2013, he left Russia and, according to the Kremlin, agreed not to engage in politics, a pledge they now claim he has broken.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Khodorkovsky has become a prominent voice among Russian exiles supporting Kyiv. He was designated a “foreign agent” by Russia in the same year. Legislation implemented following the invasion criminalizes the “discrediting” of the Russian military and has been used extensively to silence critics. The case of Sasha Skochilenko, an artist jailed for seven years for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war messages, highlights the severity of the crackdown.
Khodorkovsky joins a long list of individuals who have faced persecution for opposing the war. The charges against him echo the fate of other exiled Kremlin critics, such as Boris Berezovsky, who also fled to the United Kingdom and faced numerous sentences in absentia before his death in 2013.
In December, Khodorkovsky declared Russia a “fully fledged totalitarian dictatorship” and vowed to “fight for a Russia governed by the rule of law and political pluralism.” The new charges suggest the Kremlin is determined to silence any opposition, even from those beyond its borders.
First Piper 