“Khodorkovsky content with choice of prison” reads the interfax.ru headline.

Khodorkovsky posted a statement on his official website on Tuesday to “thank” the authorities for sending him “to a land of political prisoners, convicts and the Decembrists [participants in the 1825 uprising in Imperial Russia].”

Somehow, I don’t think the wonderful facilities are the reason for his contentment.

By the way, lawyers reckon that, with parole for good behaviour, Khodorkovsky could be eligible for release from prison in 2009, which would open the way nicely for whoever follows Putin to release Khodorkovsky early in their Presidency without having to go down the Presidential pardon route.