Russian Oil Tycoon to Stay in Jail 6 More Years

Mikhail Khordorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in jail on Thursday.  He was given 14 years by judge Viktor Danilkin for stealing oil and laundering proceeds that he made.  The decision comes in the final year of an eight year sentence that Khordorkovsky was originally serving.  He will get credit for time in jail from 2003 as well as another previous stay.

The motivation for extending the jail sentence is seen largely as an act of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  Putin is considering another stay as president in 2012 and would like to limit his political enemies, including Khordorkovsky.

Analysts and civil rights activists say that the ruling proves that the courts are not independent of the Russian government and can be manipulated.  The current president, Dmitry Medvedev, has come under fire for failing to deliver on promises to strengthen the court system.

It seemed as though the defense in the trial had a strong case, arguing that it would have been impossible for Khordorkovsky to steal the volume of oil that he is accused of taking.  The near $30 billion dollars of oil amounts to almost all of the oil that his company produced from 1998 to 2003.