Imprisoned Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in a statement Wednesday that he wants to run in a parliamentary by-election in December, a hopelessly quixotic ambition that nonetheless will rankle the Kremlin and keep his plight in the public eye, according to political analysts.
"I advocate the right of every citizen of Russia to freely announce: the present Kremlin regime has exhausted itself and its days are numbered," said Khodorkovsky, 42, in a statement on his Web site announcing his candidacy. "A new generation of leaders must succeed [President Vladimir] Putin's disintegrating and decaying regime, a generation that has Russia's future in the third millennium in mind."
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