Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil tycoon sentenced to nine years in jail last week, could become a rallying figure for the liberal opposition and a bigger irritant to the authorities from behind bars than he was as a businessman, Russian political analysts said last week.

A poll by the Levada Centre, an opinion poll organisation, conducted before the former chief of the Yukos oil company was convicted, found 8.3 per cent of Russians said they would vote for him as president.