The EU has expressed disappointment over the the new six-year sentence imposed by a Russian court on former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The billionaire – who’s near the end of an eight-year term for tax evasion – has been told he will stay jailed till 2017 for embezzlement and money-laundering.

The US said the new sentence seemed to be an abuse of Russia’s legal system. Russia has not yet responded, but previously rejected Western criticism of the guilty verdict as interference.