In March, a regional human rights group proposed renaming one of the streets in the East Siberian regional center after Khodorkovsky, who is the founder of now bankrupt oil company Yukos and is currently serving an eight-year prison term for fraud and tax evasion.
"A municipal commission charged with renaming streets decided Wednesday that the street cannot be named after Khodorkovsky, as he has no state awards and has not contributed to the development of the Chita Region and its regional center," the spokesman said, adding that "on top of it all, any form of eternal memorial to a citizen is impossible while he or she is still alive."
The street proposed for renaming is the one along which the pre-trial detention center that Khodorkovsky was transferred to in December 2006, after a new criminal case was launched against him on money laundering charges, is located.
The imprisonment of Khodorkovsky, who acquired vast oil assets through controversial privatization deals in the early-1990s, has met sharp criticism from human rights groups, who insist the tycoon's prosecution was orchestrated by the authorities to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin and as part of a campaign to bring Russia's mineral assets back under Kremlin control.
