Putin signs decree to pardon Khodorkovsky

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree pardoning jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the man who has been described as his archrival.

Khodorkovsky has spent the last 10 years in prison on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement. His arrest in 2003 and the subsequent prosecution have been widely considered to be Putin’s retribution for Khodorkovsky’s political ambitions.

Putin first spoke about pardon after a news conference on Thursday, saying that Khodorkovsky has applied for the pardon because his mother’s health was deteriorating. The Kremlin’s website published a decree Friday morning saying that Putin was “guided by the principles of humanity” when he decided to pardon him.

The development, along with an amnesty for two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band and the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace protest ship, appeared aimed at easing international criticism of Russia’s human rights record ahead of February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Putin’s pet project.

Khodorkovsky was Russia’s richest man and the CEO of the country’s largest oil company when he was arrested on the tarmac of a Siberian airport and charged with tax evasion. Critics have dismissed the charges against him as a Kremlin vendetta for challenging Putin’s power. During Putin’s first term as president, the oil tycoon angered the Kremlin by funding opposition parties and also was believed to harbour personal political ambitions.

His actions defied an unwritten pact between Putin and a narrow circle of billionaire tycoons, dubbed “oligarchs,” under which the government refrained from reviewing privatization deals that made them enormously rich.

Khodorkovsky’s legal team on Thursday refrained from commenting on the possible developments in the tycoon’s case before they meet with their client. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers were on the way to meet him on Thursday.

The AP could not immediately reach Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, but the Itar-TASS news agency quoted his lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant as saying that his client could in theory walk out free on Friday.