Google – AFP, 23 January 2014
 |
Picture
taken on December 27, 2010 shows oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (L)
and his
former business partner Platon Lebedev (R) behind a glass wall in a
Moscow
court (AFP/File, Alexander Nemenov)
|
Moscow —
Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of oil tycoon
Mikhail Khodorkovsky's jailed business partner, Platon Lebedev, whose term was
due to end in May.
However,
the court effectively sealed the exile of Khodorkovsky, who was released last
month after receiving a pardon from President Vladimir Putin, by upholding the
state's $550 million (400 million euro) tax claim against him.
The former
chief of the Yukos oil firm, who left Russia immediately after his release, has
said he will not be able to return as long as the tax claim remains in place.
Russia's
top court "changed the (lower) court's decision," court spokesman
Pavel Odintsov told AFP.
 |
A photo
taken on December 22, 2013 in
Berlin shows Mikhail Khodorkovsky giving a
press
conference (AFP/File, Clemens Bilan)
|
"The
main thing today is the release of Platon Lebedev," Khodorkovsky's defence
team said in a statement.
"However
there is bad news as well. The Presidium of the Supreme Court has not overruled
the absurd claims over 17.5 billion rubles ($550 million)."
The claim
will prevent Khodorkovsky, who left Russia as soon as he was released from
jail, from returning to his home country, the statement said.
"As
long as the claim stands, the 'iron curtain' can drop in front of him any time.
And he cannot afford the luxury of losing his freedom of movement because of
his health, family situation and strategic life plans."
Khodorkovsky,
who is currently in Switzerland with his wife and children, will
"certainly not" return to Russia after the decision, his spokeswoman
Olga Pispanen further told AFP.
"He
cannot be locked inside one country now due to family circumstances and the
health of Maria Filippovna," she said, referring to the tycoon's mother,
who has undergone treatment for cancer in Berlin.
In a move
that stunned Russia, Putin last month pardoned Khodorkovsky on humanitarian
grounds and the tycoon was immediately flown out of the country.
The
cloak-and-dagger operation was quietly agreed between the Kremlin and German
diplomats including former foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.
Lebedev was
arrested in July 2003. He was Khodorkovsky's co-defendant in the two highly
controversial trials which saw both convicted on charges of fraud, tax evasion
and money laundering.
Khodorkovsky
has said that the decision to imprison and then release him was taken
personally by Putin, although he said in December that he did not hold a grudge
against the president because his family was spared.
The
European Court of Human Rights had said that the trials were unfair, but did
not call them politically motivated.
 |
President
Vladimir Putin gives an
interview to Russian and foreign
journalists in Sochi
on January 19,
2014 (Ria Novosti Pool/AFP/File,
Aleksey Nikolskyi)
|
The
57-year-old will leave the prison as soon as its administration receives the
court decision, the prison service told Russian news agencies.
Observers
have attributed the surprise release of Putin's top critic Khodorkovsky to
Kremlin attempts to improve Russia's international image ahead of the Olympic
Games that begin in Sochi on February 7.
Political
analyst Mikhail Remizov said the decision to free Lebedev was the logical next
step.
But
although Khodorkovsky has denied plans to enter politics, Putin is still wary
of letting him back into the country, he said.
"The
Kremlin does not know what to expect of him as a public figure," Remizov
said. "The Kremlin prefers some geographical distance from
Khodorkovsky."
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