Mikhail Khodorkovsky"s daughter Anastasia...

The Znamya magazine published a series of letters between Khodorkovsky and Lyudmila Ulitskaya in its November 2009 issue. The annual prize, which the literary journal has been awarding for more than 20 years, was presented at a ceremony in Moscow on Wednesday.

"I regard this award as a symbol of moral support from the magazine, its readers and respected writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, a support to all people who found themselves in a difficult situation," Khodorkovsky said in a statement read by his lawyer.

Ulitskaya said a book, which would include the award-winning correspondence, as well as Khodorkovsky"s letters to other well-known Russian writers, would soon be published.

Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion in 2005. He has consistently denied all charges against him, saying he was punished for supporting the tiny pro-Western political opposition. He claims the liquidation of his oil company Yukos was engineered by corrupt

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