MOSCOW — Taking a cue from President Vladimir Putin’s support of amnesties and pardons before the Winter Olympics, the Russian Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the business partner of the former oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky should be released from prison.
Putin pardoned Khodorkovsky in December. The ruling regarding his business partner, Platon A. Lebedev, came when two months remained on a sentence of 10 years and eight months.
It was handed down two weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics as Russian officials have been seeking to bolster the country’s image during the games.
Although rights groups called for the release of both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, the ruling to free Lebedev seems unlikely to assuage a central concern raised by the high-profile case.
Critics have said that the Russian courts, including the Supreme Court, are effectively subordinate to the political demands of the Kremlin in spite of ostensible independence, an idea that would be illustrated by Lebedev’s release as much as his imprisonment.
The two businessmen were convicted of tax evasion and fraud in 2005 and their sentences extended in a second trial five years later.
The Parliament last year adopted an amnesty timed to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the second post-Soviet Russian Constitution passed in 1993. It had the effect of releasing controversial prisoners such as members of the protest band Pussy Riot.