Putin Says Tycoon Could Be Freed From Prison Soon MOSCOW - President Vladimir V. Putin said on Thursday that Russia's most famous prisoner, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive of Yukos Oil, could soon be freed. Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest 10 years ago punctuated an authoritarian turn in Russia's recent history. Grigory Dukor/Reuters The jailed oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky during a court appearance in 2010. Mr. Putin told reporters in Moscow that Mr. Khodorkovsky had appealed for clemency on humanitarian grounds, citing his mother's declining health, and that he would soon make a decision to grant him a pardon. "He has already spent more than 10 years in confinement - this is a serious punishment," Mr. Putin said of Mr. Khodorkovsky, who before his imprisonment had backed an opposition political movement. Mr. Putin's remarks, made after a marathon news conference in which he did not address the issue, were unexpected. Earlier this week there were reports that Mr. Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, would be tried for a third time before their current sentences end in 2014. Even Mr. Khodorkovsky's lawyers were taken by surprise. His representatives in Moscow posted a statement online saying that any discussion of his making an appeal for clemency was "not legitimate" until his lawyers had a chance to meet with him. Mr. Putin, who commands singular political authority here, said he would consider the "humanitarian character" of Mr. Khodorkovsy's appeal for clemency. "His mother is ill, and I think that a decision can be taken, and in the near future a decree on his clemency will be signed," he said. Another of Russia's most famous wealthy businessmen, Mikhail Prokhorov, who ran against Mr. Putin for president in 2012, issued a statement praising the clemency decision. "In the presidential campaign, I emphasized that, as president, my first decision would be to have mercy on Michael," Mr. Prokhorov said in a statement. Something has happened that should have happened several years ago. I'm happy for Michael and his family.