Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been transferred to Moscow from his Siberian prison ahead of a new trial on fresh charges of financial crimes, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"The Khamovniki court in Moscow has been informed about Khodorkovsky's transfer to Moscow," court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva told AFP.
She added that his friend and former business associate Platon Lebedev has also been taken back to Moscow for the trial.
The trial, due to begin on March 3, is to examine new charges of embezzlement and illegal financial operations against the pair.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, has been held in a prison in the remote far-eastern region of Chita since his condemnation in 2005 on charges of fraud and tax evasion in a case that generated international controversy.