|
 His lawyer and a prison official said Khodorkovsky was free, a day
after Putin unexpectedly announced he would release one of his most
powerful critics. A government source said the move could deflect
criticism over Putin's human rights record as Russia prepares to
host the Winter Olympics in February.
"He has left the camp. That's all I can say," lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant
told Reuters by telephone. A prison official, also reached by
telephone, confirmed that. Journalists outside the prison deep in
the sub-Arctic forest did not see Khodorkovsky.
Putin surprised Russians and cheered the business community by
announcing he would free the 50-year-old businessman because his
mother was ill. Investors said it could ease entrepreneurs' fears of
the Kremlin exploiting the courts for political ends.
In a presidential decree signed on Friday, Putin said he was "guided
by the principles of humanity".
Putin had said after a four-hour, end-of-year news conference on
Thursday that Khodorkovsky asked for clemency.
His lawyers said they were checking that with their client. He was
scheduled for release next August but supporters had feared the
sentence might be extended, as it was once before.
Reporters waiting outside Penal Colony No. 7 at Segezha, near the
Finnish border, 300 km (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, did
not see Khodorkovsky leave. He has spent the past few years working
in the camp, in an area that was once a notorious part of Stalin's
Gulag system of labor camps.
Khodorkovsky came to represent what critics say is the post-Soviet
Kremlin's continued misuse of the judicial system, curbing the rule
of law, and of its refusal to permit dissent.
The authorities deny this, saying judges are independent and that
Putin has not cracked down on opponents. The president has, however,
singled Khodorkovsky out for bitter personal attacks in the past and
ignored many calls for his release.
Thursday's surprise announcement underlined Putin's confidence that
he has reasserted his authority and is in full control of Russia
after seeing off street protests.
He said two members of the Pussy Riot protest group will also be
freed, under an amnesty passed by parliament this week.
Khodorkovsky has been in jail since his arrest in October 2003 in
what supporters say was part of a Kremlin campaign to punish him for
political challenges to Putin, gain control of his oil assets and
warn other tycoons to toe the line.
[to top of second column] |
END OF EMPIRE
The oil baron fell out with Putin before his arrest as the president
clipped the wings of wealthy "oligarchs" who had become powerful
during the chaotic years of Boris Yeltsin's rule following the
collapse of Soviet communism.
His company, Yukos, was broken up and sold off, mainly into state
hands, following his arrest at gunpoint on an airport runway in
Siberia on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Yukos' prize production asset ended up in the hands of state oil
company Rosneft, which is now headed by Putin ally Igor Sechin.
Russian shares initially rose after Putin's announcement on Thursday
but later settled back.
A sustained rally would require "a consistent track record of
implementation of market-friendly reforms — in particular, of steps
to improve the judicial system, so that decisions are more
predictable and property rights better protected," a Moscow-based
economist at an investment bank said.
Putin has staked a great deal of personal prestige on the Winter
Games at Sochi on the Black Sea and is under fire abroad over a law
banning the spread of "gay propaganda" among minors.
A government source said the pardons would deprive Western critics
of a cause: "I think the decision to free Pussy Riot and
Khodorkovsky was taken just before the Olympic Games so that they
will not be able to wield this banner against Putin."
(Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Moscow;
writing by Steve Gutterman in Moscow; editing by Timothy Heritage and Alastair
Macdonald)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
