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President Vladimir Putin today signed a decree granting a pardon to Russia's former richest man and bitter Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, allowing his release after more than a decade in prison.
In a shock remark after his annual marathon news conference yesterday, Putin had said that Russia's most famous prisoner had asked for clemency on humanitarian grounds as his mother was ill.
The Kremlin followed with a swift announcement today that Putin had already signed the pardon decree.
"Guided by humanitarian principles, I decree that Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky... Should be pardoned and freed from any further punishment in the form of imprisonment. This decree comes into force from the day of its signing," said the decree signed by Putin and published by the Kremlin.
It remained unclear exactly when Khodorkovsky, 50, would be freed from his prison colony in the town of Segezha in the Karelia region of northwestern Russia.
The circumstances of the pardon also remained murky.
The former chief of Yukos oil company, once Russia's richest man, had repeatedly said he would not ask Putin for a pardon because it would be tantamount to admitting guilt.
The Kommersant broadsheet, citing unnamed sources, said today Khodorkovsky had made the decision to seek a pardon after a recent meeting with representatives of Russia's security services, who had raised the menace of a third trial against him.
Members of the security services met with Khodorkovsky over the last several days, told him the health of his cancer-stricken mother Marina, 79, was worsening and warned him about a possible third criminal case against him.
"This conversation, which was conducted without lawyers, forced Mikhail Khodorkovsky to turn to the president," said the newspaper.
Economists and political analysts put the announcement down to Kremlin's bid to improve its dismal rights record and international image ahead of the Winter Olympic Games that Russia is hosting in Sochi in February.
Khodorkovsky had been due to be released in August 2014 but Russian prosecutors earlier this month raised the threat of a third trial for the former tycoon on money-laundering charges.
Putin told reporters yesterday that he saw no prospects for the third case.
Economists and political analysts said that while Khodorkovsky's imminent release was a watershed moment it would not dramatically change Russia's battered investment climate or international image.
