Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Foreign Bank accounts are tarnishing my reputation

'Foreign bank accounts are tarnishing my reputation,' according to jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spoke today during an appeals review of a decision by the Basmanii court to prolong the ex-YUKOS chief's detention.

'I do not have any personal bank accounts anywhere but in Russia,' Khodorkovsky said. 'I am not a poor person, but my money works in Russia and for Russia.' He said that the reason for his arrest was to exert 'psychological pressure on me and on society in general.'

Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Genrih Padva and Karina Moskolenko, said their client's detention period had been extended with the aim of further investigating the case, but that since the discovery period ends May 15, it followed that Khodorkovsky had to be released May 15, and not May 25.

Khodorkovsky spoke via closed circuit television from his isolation cell in the Matrosskaya Tishina prison. The court has currently put off making a decision.