Khodorkovsky arrives in Germany

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has flown to Germany after Vladimir Putin signed a decree freeing him from a prison camp, bringing an end to more than a decade behind bars.

The German foreign office confirmed this afternoon that the former oligarch had arrived at Berlin’s Schonefeld airport, where he was met by a foreign office representative. A spokesperson also confirmed that the German embassy in Moscow had facilitated the trip, reportedly by fast-tracking a visa application.

According to Der Spiegel, the diplomat who met Khodorkovsky was the former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who had helped to organised the chartered Cesna flight.

Various reports claim that Khodorkovsky has travelled straight from the airport on to the nearby Charite Campus Virchow clinic. A spokesperson for the clinic declined to confirm or deny the reports.

Khodorkovsky’s mother Marina had spent several months at the clinic being treated for cancer, but had been released on December 12th and returned to Moscow afterwards. Der Spiegel suggests that Khodorkovsky may still have assumed that his mother was in Berlin.

Marina Khodorkovsky said she was ready to fly anywhere to meet her son, if needs be. “I want to just hug him. I don’t even know yet what I am going to say to him,” she said.

Yesterday, Mr Putin made the surprise announcement that he planned to pardon Khodorkovsky, who was regarded by Kremlin critics as a political prisoner. The Russian president signed the decree - which pardoned Khodorkovsky on the basis of “the principles of humanism” - this morning.

Mr Putin’s announcement that he intended to release Khodorkovsky - who has been in jail since 2003 and was due for release next August - came at the end of a four-hour press conference in Moscow yesterday.

The former oligarch, who became a staunch Kremlin critic after being convicted of economic crimes in trials that many believe were politically motivated, was seen as a potential political threat to Mr Putin if released.

Opposition-linked political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said there was no need to see anything other than purely cynical motives in Putin’s decision to free Khodorkovsky: “Putin has seen that there is a real problem with his and Russia’s image in the west, and the Olympic Games are coming. This was a carefully planned decision timed to happen just before Christmas, so everybody could write about it, think how great it is, and then forget about it in the new year.”

Mr Oreshkin noted that Khodorkovsky’s sentence was due to come to an end in nine months anyway, and said that he was sure that Russian officials had “given him no option” but to ask for a pardon.

“Previously, Khodorkovsky has always refused to ask for a pardon, as it would suggest he recognises the legitimacy of the system and of the court cases against him. Whether they threatened him with a new case and a further seven or eight years in prison, or whether it was a statement about his mother’s failing health, who knows.”

Guardian