RUSSIA - Sep 1 - Khodorkovsky Makes Bid From Prison To Run For Parliament.

The jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is planning to run for the Russian parliament from his prison cell, in what he says is an attempt to stand up for citizens' rights but some analysts labelled a publicity stunt. Although sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud and tax evasion charges in June, Khodorkovsky is entitled to stand in an forthcoming Moscow by-election as his appeal has not yet been heard. Khodorkovsky said he had received widespread support within Russia to stand for a seat in the Duma, or lower house, in the liberal-minded constituency around Moscow University. The seat is vacant after former finance minister Mikhail Zadornov, stepped down to move into business. "I am struggling not for access to the [MPs'] canteen or an office at [the Duma] but for the right of every Russian citizen to say out loud that the present Kremlin regime is a spent force and its days are numbered", Khodorkovsky said in a statement on his website. Khodorkovsky was arrested on fraud charges in 2003, and his Yukos oil company has been hit with back tax claims totalling $28 bn (21.5bn, [pounds sterling]15.5bn). The move was seen in Russia as a Kremlin-inspired attack on Khodorkovsky's then unannounced political ambitions. Since his trial ended, the former Yukos chief has had contact with members of Russia's fragmented liberal opposition, who are supporting his candidacy. But analysts expect the authorities to find a way to prevent Khodorkovsky from contesting the by-election - possibly by postponing it from December to next spring, and hurrying through his appeal. Alexei Makarkin of the Centre for Political Technologies think-tank said Khodorkovsky's move would serve to keep both his name, and the struggling liberal opposition, in the media spotlight - even if he were eventually excluded from the poll. "I think for Khodorkovsky the most important thing is that people don't forget about him", Makarkin said. "He doesn't want to be just another prisoner, he wants to be a socially important figure". Khodorkovsky had kept his name in the news in recent weeks, Makarkin added, through a written interview and signed article in Vedomosti, the FT's Russian sister paper. He also staged a hunger strike over the decision to move Platon Lebedev, his former business partner also sentenced to nine years, to an isolation cell.