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Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Moscow courtroom in July 2004. AP Photo/Sergey Pobomarev/File

Putin foe Khodorkovsky released after 10 years in jail

Russia’s most famous prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky walked out of jail today after spending more than 10 years behind bars.

RUSSIA’S MOST FAMOUS prisoner and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky reportedly walked free from jail today after spending more than 10 years behind bars, following a surprise pardon by President Vladimir Putin.

Putin pardoned Russia’s former richest man on Friday, a day after stunning the country by saying the ex-tycoon asked for clemency on humanitarian grounds as his mother was ill.

“Guided by humanitarian principles, I decree that Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky… should be pardoned and freed from any further punishment in the form of imprisonment,” said the decree signed by Putin and published by the Kremlin.

Less than a half hour later, Khodorkovsky, 50, walked out of his prison colony in the town of Segezha in the Karelia region of northwestern Russia, the Interfax news agency reported citing a local security source.

But Khodorkovsky’s lead lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said he could neither confirm nor deny this information and prison officials declined immediate comment.

The Federal Service for the Execution of Punishment (FSIN) which runs Russia’s prisons issued a statement confirming that Khodorkovsky’s sentence had been terminated but not explicitly confirming he had walked free from the camp.

In line with Putin’s decree, Khodorkovsky “has been freed from the further serving of his punishment in the form of imprisonment,” it said in a statement on its website.

What role Khodorkovsky will play in Russia after his release is unclear, but it is appears certain that Putin would never had allowed his freedom if he was seen as a threat.

image

AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev

Khodorkovsky’s 79-year-old mother Marina, who was caught off guard by Putin’s announcement, said she was still trying to fathom what was happening.

“It has not sunk in yet,” Marina Khodorkovskaya said in remarks broadcast on state television. Speaking in a shaky voice, she said she was taking sedatives to calm her nerves.

“God, he had mercy,” exclaimed mass-circulation newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets in a banner headline.

Secret services

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 on Thursday that he saw no prospects for the third case.

The circumstances of the pardon also remained murky.

The former chief of the Yukos oil company 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 decided 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.

image

AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev

Members of the security services met with Khodorkovsky told him the health of his cancer-striken mother was worsening and warned him about a possible third criminal case against him.

“It would be interesting to understand what he feels right now,” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on his blog, hailing how he had carried “himself with such astonishing dignity all these 10 years.”

‘Putin’s trump card’

Economists and political analysts put the release 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.

While Khodorkovsky’s release was a watershed moment, it would not dramatically change Russia’s battered investment climate or international image, they added.

The Eurasia Group consultancy said the former tycoon’s release was a “charm offensive” ahead of the Sochi Olympics amid reports that heads of major states like Barack Obama of the United States and France’s Francois Hollande will not be in attendance.

Vedomosti business daily compared the announcement to “a trump card” Putin pulled out of his sleeve at a critical moment.

“Khodorkovsky personally no longer presents a threat to the system,” it said, noting that his release would not “heal the wounds inflicted on the economy and society 10 years ago.”

Supporters have said that Khodorkovsky had been thrown into jail and found guilty in two separate trials for daring to finance opposition to the Russian strongman.

He was snatched off his corporate plane in 2003 soon after Putin warned oligarchs against meddling in politics. He has been held in detention ever since.

He and his business partner Platon Lebedev were convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005. Khodorkovsky was convicted of embezzlement in a second trial in 2010 and had been due for release in August.

- © AFP, 2013

Read: Medvedev orders conviction review for Russian tycoon >

Read: Moscow court upholds conviction of oil magnate and Putin opponent >

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    Mute Joe OShea
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:06 PM

    Better swap those breakfast rolls for Sushi.

    408
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    Mute Christopher O'Toole
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:17 PM

    More fish. Raw preferable. Longer life!

    133
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    Mute Joe Shaw
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    Feb 28th 2013, 7:37 PM

    It’s not just the fish, it’s the lack of processed food in general…I bet future generations wont live as long with the likes of McDonalds opening up everywhere…

    18
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    Mute Colette Mullins
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:07 PM

    Poor Joan Burton would freak having to pay the pension for that long!!!!!!!!!!

    138
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    Mute Joey Potatoes
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:47 PM

    If i was 114 i’d stick my tongue out to the world too.. nah na!

    103
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    Mute Orlaith Lynch
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    Feb 27th 2013, 8:32 PM

    You’re one shocking scary looking spud :)

    60
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    Mute Joey Potatoes
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    Feb 27th 2013, 8:56 PM

    You should see me in the morning…

    78
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    Mute Orlaith Lynch
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:05 PM

    I’m sure you look only sMASHing…I’ll get my coat ;)

    112
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    Mute Joey Potatoes
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:13 PM

    I’ll join you, now where’s my jacket…

    133
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    Mute Orlaith Lynch
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:20 PM

    No need for a jacket you’ll be roasted :)

    131
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    Mute Joey Potatoes
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:28 PM

    Where would this end?

    62
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    Mute Lillian O'Connor
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:16 PM

    Stronger sex do it again

    83
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    Mute Terry Morgan
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:17 PM

    LoL!

    56
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    Mute Harry Martin
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:29 PM

    Ah come on now ,she’s hardly still having sex ,be it strong or otherwise.

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    Mute Lillian O'Connor
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    Feb 27th 2013, 8:43 PM

    @Harry – its not about sex

    25
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    Mute sluazcanal
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:33 PM

    Ah Lillian, you see when you use the word “sex” us men stop thinking. We never assume that you mean gender ever.

    122
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    Mute Terry Morgan
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:04 PM
    41
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    Mute Daithi O'Brien
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    Feb 27th 2013, 9:34 PM

    I wouldn’t want to live that long myself. Couldn’t be fun. Apart from the flying robot butlers we’ll have though.

    32
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    Mute Harry Martin
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    Feb 27th 2013, 8:54 PM

    Sorry Lillian, its just when i looked at the picture i thought she was winking at me !

    31
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    Mute stephen
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    Feb 27th 2013, 8:48 PM

    Here lies the body of Mary Lee; died at the age of a hundred and three. For fifteen years she kept her virginity; not a bad record for this vicinity.

    29
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    Mute Breda Lyons
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    Feb 28th 2013, 1:59 AM

    Here we have a 115 year old lady and her NINETY year old son sitting next to her, the human body really is amazing in its capabilities.

    20
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    Mute Harry Martin
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    Feb 28th 2013, 3:09 AM

    It sure is Breda ,i still have a hard on 7 hours after i first seen her picture ! I just got back from the pub where i got talking to a nurse about euthanasia and i asked her for her views on the subject…her reply was ..” i’ve never been to Asia ,but if the’re anything like the youth in Ireland i dont think i really want to go”.

    22
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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Feb 27th 2013, 10:09 PM

    Interestingly enough people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki live longer than Irish people nowadays.
    Must be something in the environment.

    19
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    Mute Tony Le Blanc
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    Feb 27th 2013, 10:27 PM

    Google: The Okinawa Way

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    Mute billtipp
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    Feb 28th 2013, 7:22 PM

    They’ve had thousands of doctors watching for every sneeze for last 65 years.

    1
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    Mute John Burke
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    Feb 27th 2013, 7:04 PM

    Leave I bleedin ou!

    19
    reds
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    Mute reds
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:25 PM

    114 years behind

    23
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    Mute John Smyth
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    Feb 28th 2013, 8:06 AM

    Her granddaughter looks very young,the son at 90 must have been getting it up at a right old age

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    Mute Stamper Macdouglas
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:53 PM

    Considering our health care we will be lucky to live till retirement age

    12
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    Mute Donal Kelleher
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:26 PM

    With all the great fish being exported to Japan it makes you wonder. What are we doing??!!??

    11
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    Mute Sandra Busteed
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:45 PM

    Eating horse burgers instead of fish!

    44
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    Mute Mary Jane Kelliher
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:39 PM

    God bless her , the things she has witnessed. On the sushi thing, yeah I good. I don’t want to live past 100.

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    Mute Donal Kelleher
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    Feb 27th 2013, 11:23 PM

    With all the great fish being exported to Japan it makes you we wonder. What are we doing??!!??

    5
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    Mute Daniel Wilson
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    Feb 28th 2013, 1:08 AM

    Extremely close to having an article with no comments about the government there

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    Mute Daniel Wilson
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    Feb 28th 2013, 1:10 AM

    ^ @ Collette’s comment

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    Tim
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    Mute Tim
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    Feb 28th 2013, 3:04 PM

    How many centenarians are there in America. Second place is number is quoted so why isn’t first place.

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    Mute Ocean Wave
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    Apr 21st 2013, 4:51 PM

    Wow.115 years old.I wish I lived that long.

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    Mute Sherry Six
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    Feb 28th 2013, 2:37 PM

    There have been older people than her that lived longer but I would not want to live that long

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    Mute billtipp
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    Feb 28th 2013, 7:14 PM

    Very dubious record to hold,all the previous holders didn’t seem to last very long.

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    Mute Sherry Six
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    Feb 28th 2013, 2:41 PM

    There has been older women than her that lived longer but I would not want to live that long

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