Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, freed by a pardon
from Russian President Vladimir Putin after 10 years in jail, said in remarks
published on Sunday that he would not go into politics or seek to regain assets
of his former oil company, Yukos.
In an interview with Russian magazine The New Times,
Khodorkovsky said there were no conditions attached to the pardon but said he
had told Putin in a letter: "I do not intend to get involved in politics
and do not intend to fight for the return of (Yukos) assets."
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on
Sunday, the former tycoon said there were no conditions for his release.
"Mr. Putin, on a number of times, publicly said that he
was ready to consider the question of my pardoning -- but I had to say I was
guilty for that," Khodorkovsky said during the interview in Berlin.
"That was an unacceptable condition for me."
Once Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky's imprisonment
brought international criticism to Russia. He 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."
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