RUSSIA: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man and fiercest critic of Vladimir Putin, may have a few million lying around and degrees in engineering and economics.
But, in the icy Siberian prison where he has been sent to serve seven years for tax evasion and fraud, such airs and graces can't save anyone from the drudgery of life as a budget tailor.
Yesterday colony 14/10 near the far-eastern town of Krasnokamensk became the great leveller for the one-time oil billionaire, when the prison authorities informed Khodorkovsky he would have to sit a sewing exam.
His lawyer, Elena Levina, who has just returned from seeing Russia's most famous inmate, told his website, www.khodorkovsky.ru, that the prisoner had been serving as an apprentice in the colony's clothing factory since November.
Ms Levina said Khodorkovsky now has to face a commission to prove his tailoring skills so he can work full-time in the factory, which makes cheap clothes for prisoners.
She said he was considering whether to refuse to sit the exam, as his education qualified him for more intellectual tasks in the prison, such as teaching, studying, writing scientific journals, "or something that would use his considerable knowledge".
Khodorkovsky was recently put into solitary confinement for five days after guards found the ministry of justice's rules for prisoner conduct among documents in his cell, which inmates are not allowed to possess. - (Guardian service)