Bloomberg News 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, right, Russia's richest man and former CEO, OAO Yukos Oil is guarded in the defendant's cage at the Meschansky Court in Moscow in this July 12, 2004 file photo. Photographer: Dmitry Beliakov/Bloomberg 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former owner of Yukos Oil Co., will receive a pardon, ending a case that symbolized the lack of rule of law in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power more than a decade ago. 
 
 The decree pardoning Russia’s former richest man will be signed soon, Putin said in comments shown today on state television broadcaster Rossiya 24. Russian stocks rose after Putin made the surprise remarks following a more than four-hour-long annual press conference. 
 
 “He’s already spent more than 10 years in prison, that’s a serious punishment,” Putin said. “He cited humanitarian circumstances, his mother is ill. I believe that such a decision can be taken and soon a decree will be signed pardoning him.” 
 
 Faced with more than $400 billion in capital outflows since 2008 and the slowest economic growth in four years, Putin is seeking to reverse a loss of investor confidence by freeing his country’s most prominent prisoner before his scheduled release in eight months. Khodorkovsky’s company Yukos was dismantled and sold at auction, mostly to state-run OAO Rosneft, to cover tens of billions of dollars in back taxes after his imprisonment. 
 
 Russia’s Micex Index extended gains after the announcement and closed up 0.8 percent at 6:45 p.m. in Moscow. 
 
 Surprise Move 
 
 Khodorkovsky’s lawyers said no comments should be considered valid until they meet with their client, according to a statement on their website. Before such meeting takes place, “it cannot be commented on whether a request on a pardon was made, by whom and for what reasons,” they said. 
 
 The unexpected move caps Khodorkovsky’s travails that started with an arrest on the tarmac of a Siberian airport in 2003 and included time served in a penal colony in the Chita region near the border with China before his transfer to a prison in the northwestern region of Karelia in 2011. 
 
 Less than two weeks ago, human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said Khodorkovsky was unlikely to be freed this month under an amnesty plan being prepared by Putin, and hopes for a reprieve reflected “wishful thinking.” 
 
 The jailed billionaire also risked additional charges, with investigators working on a $10 billion money-laundering case related to Yukos, Interfax reported Dec. 6. Officials were probing several criminal cases, Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev told the news service. 
 
 New Charges 
 
 “It is a surprise he is being freed because the Investigative Committee was possibly looking at cooking new charges against him,” Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Moscow-based consultancy Macro Advisory, said by phone in Moscow. “It shows Russia has a serious intention to try to curb the capital outflows. There is a greater focus on reform issues as we have seen with the political amnesty.” 
 
 Khodorkovsky, 50, has served more than 10 years in prison after two convictions for tax evasion, money-laundering and oil embezzlement. The sentences include time served since he was detained. Khodorkovsky maintained his innocence, saying the cases against him were retribution for financing opposition parties, an accusation which the Kremlin has denied. 
 
 The appeal for clemency was received “recently” in the form of a letter signed by Khodorkovsky, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said by phone. The petition amounts to an admission of guilt by Khodorkovsky, Peskov told Interfax. 
 
 Guilt Admission? 
 
 A presidential human rights council serving during Dmitry Medvedev’s term in office presented legal advice that a pardon for Khodorkovsky wouldn’t need an admission of guilt, Mikhail Fedotov, who has remained the body’s head under Putin, said in March 2012. 
 
 Khodorkovsky’s mother, Marina, told RT television that Putin’s decision came as a “bolt from the blue,” according to a transcript of her remarks e-mailed by the state-run broadcaster. She said she last saw her son in prison in August and is only allowed to call him once a week on Saturdays. 
 
 “It’s good for the investor perception of Russia,” said Ivan Mazalov, who helps manage $4 billion at Prosperity Capital, said by phone in Moscow. The pardon resembles a public-relations exercise to boost Russia’s international profile before the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February, he said. 
 
 Putin’s Reprieve 
 
 Putin’s move follows yesterday’s approval by Russian lawmakers of an amnesty that includes the 30 Greenpeace crew facing hooliganism charges for an Arctic drilling protest. Two members of the all-female punk band Pussy Riot imprisoned for hooliganism for a protest against Putin will be offered freedom under the amnesty, according to their lawyer. 
 
 The Russian government is struggling to lure foreign investors to counter capital outflows. Putin, who was also president when Khodorkovsky was detained, returned to the Kremlin last year after four years as prime minister with a pledge of pushing Russia to 20th in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking by 2018. It ranked 92nd this year. 
 
 Putin said today at his press conference that he saw “no particular prospects” of a new criminal case against Yukos and its executives. Khodorkovsky may face as much as another seven years in prison on fresh money-laundering charges, the Russian news service Interfax had reported this month, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. 
 
 The Russian leader said at a call-in news conference in 2010 that “thieves should sit in jail.” A year later, Putin insisted that to get an amnesty, Khodorkovsky would have to admit his guilt. 
 
 “The Yukos case is the single most obvious case of selective justice and lack of rule of law in Russia,” Vladimir Osakovskiy, Moscow-based chief economist for Russia at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said by e-mail. This “could potentially be major positive news for Russian markets.” 
 
 “What should have happened several years ago has happened,” billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, a former presidential candidate, said in a statement. “I am happy for Mikhail and his family.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will soon pardon jailed former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 
 
 Mr Putin said he had received a request from Khodorkovsky - in custody for a decade - to pardon him on humanitarian grounds as his mother is ill. 
 
 Khodorkovsky's representatives said they needed to meet him before commenting but that the family would be "elated to see him finally freed". 
 
 On Wednesday, MPs backed a wide-ranging amnesty for at least 20,000 prisoners. 
 
 Speaking to reporters after his annual news conference in Moscow on Thursday, Mr Putin confirmed the amnesty would apply to the two members of punk band Pussy Riot still in prison and Greenpeace activists detained for their protest at a Russian oil rig in the Arctic. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Vladimir Putin said he would "soon sign an order about his [Mikhail Khodorkovsky's] pardon" 
 
 Analysts say Mr Putin may be trying to ease international criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of February's Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. 
 
 'Serious punishment' 
 
 Analysis Although Mikhail Khodorkovsky is ostensibly in prison for fraud, theft and money laundering, he is considered by many to be Russia's longest-serving political prisoner. When Vladimir Putin was consolidating power in his first term as president, Khodorkovsky did not flee like some oligarchs, and continued to fund opposition groups. It seems he has spent more than 10 years in prison as a result. Other billionaires who made their fortunes in the chaotic '90s were not pursued for their questionable accounting. This pardon appears to be as arbitrary as Khodorkovsky's conviction. No-one in his camp seemed to know he had even asked for it, but President Putin said he has, and that he is willing to sign the decree. 
 
 Khodorkovsky, 50, and fellow defendant Platon Lebedev were convicted of stealing oil and laundering money in 2010. They were already serving time for tax evasion. 
 
 As head of the now defunct oil giant Yukos, Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man. 
 
 President Putin said he had not received a request from Khodorkovsky in the past. 
 
 "And then quite recently he wrote such a document and addressed a request for a pardon to me," Mr Putin said. 
 
 "He has already been in detention more than 10 years, this is a serious punishment and he is referring to humanitarian circumstances as his mother is ill. 
 
 "I think given the circumstances we can take the decision and very soon the decree to pardon him will be signed," Mr Putin said. 
 
 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP news agency the request had been personally "signed" by Khodorkovsky. 
 
 But Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, told BBC Russian she did not know about any clemency request by her son. 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky timeline 1980s - Sets up computer software business 
 
 - Sets up computer software business 1987 - Founds Menatep bank 
 
 - Founds Menatep bank 1995 - Buys Yukos for $350m, with Menatep assuming $2bn in debt 
 
 - Buys Yukos for $350m, with Menatep assuming $2bn in debt 2003 - Arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud 
 
 - Arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud 2005 - Jailed for eight years (running 2003-11) 
 
 - Jailed for eight years (running 2003-11) 2007 - Yukos declared bankrupt 
 
 - Yukos declared bankrupt Dec 2010 - Convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, jailed for 13 years (2003-16) 
 
 - Convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, jailed for 13 years (2003-16) Dec 2012 - Sentence cut by two years, release date 2014 
 
 - Sentence cut by two years, release date 2014 Dec 2013 - Vladimir Putin says he will pardon Khodorkovsky Profile: Mikhail Khodorkovsky 
 
 "I spoke to Mikhail last Saturday for about three minutes, but we did not discuss this. He only asked about my health," she said. 
 
 Khodorkovsky is currently scheduled to leave jail next August. His supporters have long argued he is a political prisoner. 
 
 A statement from his press centre reads: "Until his legal team can meet with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, it cannot be commented on whether a request on a pardon was made, by whom and for what reasons. 
 
 "All of his family and supporters would of course be elated to see him finally free after 10 years of imprisonment." 
 
 The amnesty passed in the State Duma on Wednesday covers at least 20,000 prisoners, including minors, disabled people, veterans, pregnant women and mothers. 
 
 Charges against 30 people arrested following the protest by the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise may now be dropped. 
 
 Two members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, are still in jail for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing an anti-Kremlin protest song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. ||||| Image caption Khodorkovsky gave the first news conference after his release in Berlin 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man as head of oil giant Yukos, spent 10 years in custody for tax evasion and theft after funding opposition parties. 
 
 After asking for clemency because of his mother's serious illness, the fierce critic of the Kremlin was freed suddenly after being given a pardon by President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 He was flown to Germany where he announced he would stay out of politics and would not return to Russia unless he was sure he could leave again. 
 
 Analysts have suggested that Khodorkovsky was singled out by Mr Putin when he came to power in 2000 as president and set about breaking the hold of the much-loathed oligarchs who had flourished under his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. 
 
 Whatever his influence in business circles, he was never a popular figure with the Russian public, who identified him with the country's chaotic move to a market economy in the 1990s, when tens of millions were left impoverished. 
 
 Supporters of Khodorkovsky, 50, seek to portray him as the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice. 
 
 Komsomol years 
 
 Khodorkovsky had made his fortune - estimated by Forbes magazine to be more than $15bn (£9.72bn) - from the controversial privatisation of Soviet state assets. 
 
 A native of Moscow and the son of two engineers, he had studied at Mendeleyev Chemistry Institute and began his career as a loyal Soviet-era Communist Party member, running a computer import business under the wing of the party's youth movement (Komsomol) in the 1980s. 
 
 Image caption Khodorkovsky's downfall rocked Russia 
 
 In 1987 - four years before the fall of the USSR - he founded what would become Menatep, one of post-Soviet Russia's first private banks. 
 
 He made his first millions in the 1990s when the bank acquired massive amounts of shares in companies that were privatised for bargain prices. 
 
 Fertiliser firm Apatit was bought in 1994, later becoming the focus of the initial trial against Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev. 
 
 His business empire, prosecutors later claimed, was little short of a gangster operation and Apatit shares were alleged to have been picked up illegally via the use of umbrella companies. 
 
 In 1995, Khodorkovsky acquired Yukos at a state auction at the knockdown price of $350m. 
 
 It had come close to folding but now Yukos became Russia's second biggest oil company, pumping one in every five barrels the country produced. 
 
 It began publishing its accounts to international standards and was soon seen as one of Russia's most transparent, well-run companies with international investors clamouring to own shares. 
 
 Khodorkovsky even served as deputy fuel and oil minister during Yeltsin's presidency. 
 
 Arrest 
 
 He was first arrested in October 2003 on charges of tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement. 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky Timeline 1963 - Born in Moscow, son of chemical engineers 
 
 1981 - Enters Mendeleyev Chemistry Institute, Moscow 
 
 1980s - Sets up computer software business with fellow students 
 
 1987 - Founds Menatep bank 
 
 1994 - Buys Apatit fertiliser company at auction 
 
 1995 - Buys Yukos for $350m, with Menatep assuming $2bn in debt 
 
 2003 - Arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud 
 
 2004 - First court case begins 
 
 2005 - Found guilty on six of seven charges, jailed for eight years 
 
 2007 - Yukos declared bankrupt 
 
 March 2009 - Second court case starts in Moscow 
 
 December 2010 - Convicted of embezzlement and money laundering 
 
 August 2013 - second sentence reduced 
 
 December 2013 - President Putin pardons him after a request for clemency and he is flown to Germany 
 
 Jailed in 2005 for eight years, he was tried again two years before his release date on further charges of embezzlement and money laundering. He is due for release in August 2014. 
 
 His lawyers maintained the charges against him were trumped up, carried out on the orders of senior figures in the Kremlin who objected when his activities strayed into the political arena. 
 
 Khodorkovsky had provided funding to nearly all political parties, including the communists, and acquired the rights to publish the prestigious Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper. He also hired a well-known investigative journalist critical of Vladimir Putin. 
 
 He had made no secret of his support for the liberal opposition to Mr Putin. 
 
 When asked about Khodorkovsky on live television before the second trial verdict was read out, Mr Putin said simply, "a thief should be in jail". 
 
 The European Court of Human Rights also criticised the trials yet rejected claims they were politically motivated. 
 
 'Hard to stay strong' 
 
 Yukos filed for bankruptcy in 2006 while Khodorkovsky was serving his first sentence at a Soviet-era labour camp in the Chita region of eastern Siberia, 4,700km (3,000 miles) east of Moscow. 
 
 Image caption Khodorkovsky is seen here in court in Moscow in June 2011 
 
 He was moved in 2011 to a prison camp in Karelia, near the Finnish border. 
 
 In August, when his prison sentence was reduced and an early release date was set for 2013, he continued to insist that the cases against him had been fabricated. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mikhail Khodorkovsky's mother Marina has been visiting him every three months 
 
 In an address to the court by video link, he argued that the judiciary was being manipulated by politicians. 
 
 "Whether we are talking about elections or business affairs or even mutual relations in matters of faith, the words 'a criminal case has been initiated' are key," he said. 
 
 In an interview for BBC News earlier this year, Khodorkovsky's mother Marina said: "Because our courts are unfair, it is hard to stay strong. But people need to be honest, tell the truth and speak out. They should not be afraid." 
 
 After 10 years in custody, and with his business empire gone, it is questionable how much influence Khodorkovsky would have in Russia again, were he ever to return. ||||| (Corrects to "gay" from "anti-gay" in paragraph 16) 
 
 * Freeing tycoon, Pussy Riot, Greenpeace protesters 
 
 * Khodorkovsky release marks Putin confidence, Olympic gesture 
 
 * Putin defends conservative course in third term 
 
 By Alexei Anishchuk and Timothy Heritage 
 
 MOSCOW, Dec 19 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin is to pardon one of his best known opponents, jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in what may be a gesture to critics of his human rights record before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics. 
 
 Putin made the announcement that he would soon free Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, after a marathon news conference in which he exuded confidence that he has reasserted his authority in the face of street protests. He also confirmed that women from the Pussy Riot group would be also be released. 
 
 Khodorkovsky, 50, spectacularly fell out with Putin a decade ago and had his Yukos oil company dissolved following his arrest on fraud and tax evasion charges in 2003. 
 
 He became Putin's nemesis, a symbol of what investors say is the Kremlin's abuse of the courts for political ends - and share prices rose in Moscow on the news he would be pardoned. 
 
 Putin has long singled out Khodorkovsky, who would be due for release in August, for bitter personal attacks, once saying that "a thief should sit in jail". 
 
 On Thursday, he said: "He has been in jail already more than 10 years. This is a serious punishment." 
 
 Saying that Khodorkovsky's mother was ill, he added: "I decided that, with these circumstances in mind, we should make a decision to pardon him." 
 
 Russian stocks rose by 1.3 percent after Putin's comment, even though his lawyers and mother said he had not asked for a pardon. One of the lawyers said, however, that Putin did not need a pardon request to release him from prison. 
 
 Investors had long seen the treatment of a man who built a business empire on the ruins of Soviet communism as evidence of the weakness of property rights and the rule of law in Russia. 
 
 Supporters say Khodorkovsky was jailed to curb a political challenge to Putin, bring his oil assets under state control and send a signal to other wealthy "oligarchs" to toe the line. His assets were sold off, mainly into state hands. 
 
 In the eyes of Kremlin critics at home and abroad, Khodorkovsky's jailing is one of the biggest stains on the record of Putin, who was first elected president in 2000 and has not ruled out seeking another six-year term in 2018. 
 
 Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, who will turn 80 next year, said she had just heard the reports and was unaware of a request for a pardon. 
 
 "I want to believe he will pardon him," she told Reuters. "I want to believe Putin is not totally lost." 
 
 Khodorkovsky is due for release in August. But he has previously had his jail term extended on other charges and analysts have said Putin would allow Khodorkovsky to walk free only if he no longer regarded him as a political threat. 
 
 Freeing Khodorkovsky and the two women from Pussy Riot, jailed over a profanity-laced protest against Putin in a Russian Orthodox Church, could ease criticism of the president before the Sochi Olympics in February. 
 
 He has staked a great deal of personal prestige on the Games, and is under fire over a law banning the spread of "gay propaganda" among minors. 
 
 Thirty people jailed over a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling are also expected to avoid trial under the amnesty approved by parliament this week, although Putin said it was not drawn up with Pussy Riot or Greenpeace in mind. 
 
 RELAXED AND CONFIDENT 
 
 Putin's performance at the news conference was much smoother than at similar meetings with the media and public in 2012 and 2011, when the opposition had mobilised mainly young, middle-class protesters and held the biggest protests against him since he rose to power in 2000. 
 
 Critics say the prosecution of the women from Pussy Riot was part of a clampdown on dissent after Putin weathered the protests and won a third term as president in March 2012 following a stint as prime minister. 
 
 His comments, on subjects ranging from Russia's economy to its role in persuading Syria to destroy its chemical arms, underlined his commitment to conservative policies to woo core voters since he returned to the Kremlin. 
 
 He largely avoided the veiled barbs he has directed in the past at the West and portrayed Russia as a world power with growing influence. 
 
 "We have really made a significant contribution to the solving of acute, longstanding problems," Putin said, mentioning efforts to end the conflict in Syria and Iran's nuclear dispute. 
 
 "Without our joint work with the Americans, Europeans and our Chinese friends, it would have been impossible to achieve these results," he said. "We did not shift position, we did not, as they, say do any zig-zagging." 
 
 Putin has often used such occasions to rail against the West and accused the United States of backing the protests two years ago which undermined his authority. This time he took a largely non-confrontational approach, despite at one point criticising Western sanctions against Iran. 
 
 As expected, he used the news conference to confirm an increasingly conservative course. Asked about religious values since he moved closer to the Russian Orthodox Church in the past two years, he acknowledged he was taking "a conservative approach" but added that this was taking Russia forward. 
 
 He also took a swipe at Pussy Riot over the group's protest in the main Russia Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in colourful ski masks and short dresses almost two years ago, calling their protest disgraceful. One of three women jailed over the incident has already been released. 
 
 Putin also defended Russia's response to the Greenpeace protest, saying it should serve as a lesson and Moscow would toughen steps to guard against interference in its development of the region. (Additonal reporting by Steve Gutterman, Katya Golubkova, Alissa de Carbonnel, Lidia Kelly, Vladimir Soldatkin and Maya Nikolaeva in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Alastair Macdonald)
– Vladimir Putin has freed famous oil-tycoon-turned-Kremlin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, after announcing he would do so yesterday. Putin signed a pardon that allowed for Khodorkovsky's release today on the basis of "the principles of humanity," reports the BBC, which confirms Khodorkovsky left prison after eating lunch. Putin's foes have long held up Khodorkovsky's prosecution and imprisonment as examples of his abuse of power. (The BBC has a profile of Khodorkovsky here.) Yesterday, Putin said he'd never freed him because until now, he hadn't asked, the BBC reports. "He has already been in detention more than 10 years, this is a serious punishment," Putin pointed out. "He is referring to humanitarian circumstances as his mother is ill." But Khodorkovsky, his mother, and his lawyers all denied that he'd requested the pardon, Reuters reports, and he had previously said that such a request would essentially be an admission of guilt. The initial news came a day after Russia's lower house passed an amnesty bill that could free as many as 25,000 prisoners—possibly including the jailed Pussy Rioters and Greenpeace protesters, the New York Times reports. Both moves are widely seen as attempts to deflect international criticism ahead of the Sochi Olympics. Khodorkovsky's release is also "good for the investor perception of Russia," one analyst told Bloomberg, and indeed Russian stocks rose 1.3% on the initial news.