MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would soon pardon jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who still has eight months left to serve of a more than 10-year jail sentence and is see by Kremlin opponents as a political prisoner.
"He has been in jail already more than ten years, this is a serious punishment," Putin told reporters after an annual news conference, saying that the former Yukos oil company chief had asked him for a pardon.
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console.log("BODY2. CatId is:"+catID);if(catID==120){console.log("BODY. YES for anyclip script");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js'; script.setAttribute('pubname','jpostcom'); script.setAttribute('widgetname','0011r00001lcD1i_12258'); document.getElementsByClassName('divAnyClip')[0].appendChild(script);}else if(catID!=69 && catID!=2){console.log("BODY. YES for vidazoo script");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none"; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://static.vidazoo.com/basev/vwpt.js'; script.setAttribute('data-widget-id','60fd6becf6393400049e6535'); document.getElementsByClassName('divVidazoo')[0].appendChild(script); }"He cites humanitarian reasons. His mother is ill, " Putin said. "I decided that with this circumstances in mind, it is necessary to take a decision, and in the near future a decree pardoning him will be signed."
Khodorkovsky's main lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, denied his client had asked for a pardon but said that was not required.
"Let them pardon him ... The president has the full right to do this at any moment," Klyuvgant told Reuters.
