Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, is sewing workmen's overalls in his prison in freezing Siberia. "After some brief training he has taken up work as a sewing machine operator," the head of Russia's prison service, Yuri Kalinin, told Interfax news agency on Thursday.
Khodorkovsky arrived at his new home in the wastes of Siberia - near the Chinese border and some 6,000 km (3,750 miles) from Moscow - in October to serve an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
Supporters say Khodorkovsky, who built up the oil firm YUKOS in the 1990s, is in jail because President Vladimir Putin wanted to stamp out a potential rival. His critics say he is a common criminal who tries to paint himself as a political martyr.