PUBLISHED ONDecember 19, 2013 12:53 PM
MOSCOW - Russian 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.
A lawyer for Khodorkovsky said however that the tycoon had not asked Putin for a pardon. Khodorkovsky was jailed on charges including theft and fraud but the president's opponents regard him as a political prisoner.