Moscow — President Vladimir V. Putin said on Thursday that Russia’s most famous prisoner, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chiefexecutive of Yukos Oil, could soon be freed. Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest 10 years ago punctuated an authoritarian turn in Russia’s recent history.
[h=6]Grigory Dukor/Reuters[/h]The jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky during a court appearance in 2010.
Mr. Putin told reporters in Moscow that Mr. Khodorkovsky had appealed for clemency on humanitarian grounds, citing his mother’s declining health, and that he would soon make a decision to grant him a pardon.
Mr. Putin’s remarks, made after a marathon news conference in which he did not address the issue, were unexpected; even Mr. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers and representatives here and abroad were taken by surprise. As recently as earlier this week there were reports that Mr. Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, would be tried for a third time before their current sentences end in 2014.
“He has already spent more than 10 years in confinement — this is a serious punishment,” Mr. Putin said of Mr. Khodorkovsky, who before his imprisonment had backed an opposition political movement.
Mr. Putin, who commands singular political authority here, said he would consider the “humanitarian character” of Mr. Khodorkovsy’s appeal for clemency. “His mother is ill, and I think that a decision can be taken, and in the near future a decree on his clemency will be signed.”
[h=6]Grigory Dukor/Reuters[/h]The jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky during a court appearance in 2010.
Mr. Putin told reporters in Moscow that Mr. Khodorkovsky had appealed for clemency on humanitarian grounds, citing his mother’s declining health, and that he would soon make a decision to grant him a pardon.
Mr. Putin’s remarks, made after a marathon news conference in which he did not address the issue, were unexpected; even Mr. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers and representatives here and abroad were taken by surprise. As recently as earlier this week there were reports that Mr. Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, would be tried for a third time before their current sentences end in 2014.
“He has already spent more than 10 years in confinement — this is a serious punishment,” Mr. Putin said of Mr. Khodorkovsky, who before his imprisonment had backed an opposition political movement.
Mr. Putin, who commands singular political authority here, said he would consider the “humanitarian character” of Mr. Khodorkovsy’s appeal for clemency. “His mother is ill, and I think that a decision can be taken, and in the near future a decree on his clemency will be signed.”