Putin 'to pardon' jailed former oil tycoon Khodorkovsky
Source: BBC
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.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25450785
In 2003 Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos passed to Jacob Rothschild under a deal they concluded prior to Khodorkovsky's arrest.
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