Even Mr Luzhkov's chief television tormentor, Sergei Dorenko, has professed his support for Mr Gusinsky.
Another possible target is Anatoly Chubais, who co-ordinated the tycoons' support for Mr Gusinsky this week.
Mr Gusinsky may, of course, have to sustain the fight only till next summer's presidential election.
Meanwhile, the authorities are trying to have Mr Gusinsky's media empire declared bankrupt for failing to pay taxes.
Mr Gusinsky himself was jailed briefly last summer, and then fled to Spain, where he is fighting extradition charges.
SBS-Agro, another muscular Moscow bank, while Sevodnya is in Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most empire.
Although Gazprom itself seems happy with the deal, the prosecutors do not want to let Mr Gusinsky off the hook.
But if Mr Gusinsky thought he could run a media business free of the perils of politics, he was naive.
State prosecutor Enrique Molina said the detention was justified because there was a risk of Mr Gusinsky escaping before the extradition hearing.
NTV's founder, Vladimir Gusinsky, who in 1999 enthusiastically backed their political rivals.
But Mr Gusinsky can afford good lawyers and has some sturdy friends.
Gusinsky and his people were accused of various crimes, but no convincing evidence was ever presented, and the cases fell apart in short order.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Restoration Watch #11: Putin��s Take-Down of Press Freedom
NTV, Mr Gusinsky's television channel, still maintains a robust editorial line.
Mr Gusinsky is particularly vulnerable, because he has been spending heavily.
Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, two media moguls who got in his way, had to go into exile, and several other businessmen capitulated after prosecution threats.
But Mr Putin's subsequent hounding into exile of two of the oligarchs who refused to relinquish power, Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, bore troubling witness to his authoritarian instincts.
Court sources quoted by AFP say Mr Gusinsky opposed a Russian extradition order, arguing in a hearing in Spain's highest criminal court that he was the victim of political persecution.
The United States says the Russian Government's pursuit of Mr Gusinsky, who owns of Russia's largest independent national media group, Media-Most, poses a threat to the independence of the Russian media.
Vladimir Gusinsky, a media tycoon on bail in Spain and under heavy fire from the Kremlin, has given money to improve conditions at one of Moscow's worst prisons, where he spent a few uncomfortable nights last summer.
On the face of it, the hounding of Mr Khodorkovsky is similar to the campaigns against Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, two other magnates who were stripped of most of their assets and chased out of Russia three years ago.
Gusinsky himself was arrested, then released.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Restoration Watch #11: Putin��s Take-Down of Press Freedom
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