By Christian Lowe
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has issued three instructions to the Russian authorities to move Alexanian to a hospital. He has said he will die unless he receives life-saving treatment only available outside prison.
He did not say where Alexanian would be treated. "That will be determined by the doctors, not by us. They will establish the diagnosis and decide what clinic he needs to be sent to," he said by telephone.
A former vice-president of the now-defunct Yukos oil company, Alexanian says he is nearly blind, has cancer of the lymph nodes and suspected tuberculosis.
Yelena Lvova, one of Alexanian's legal team, told Reuters she had not been informed of the decision to move her client to a clinic.
Alexanian is on trial on charges of fraud and tax evasion. Prosecutors deny mistreating him. They have accused him of refusing to accept the medical treatment offered to him in prison in a ploy to delay his trial.
On Wednesday, a Moscow district court ordered that Alexanian's trial be suspended while he received treatment. But it rejected a defence request for him to be released on bail.
(Editing by Robert Woodward)