On December 10, the Russian state news agency TASS published an article about an interview in which Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the use of presidential pardons in Russia.
Putin’s interviewer, Yekaterina Vinokurova, a journalist and member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, remarked to the president that pardons had rarely been granted in Russia in recent times. Putin responded that under Russia’s pardon law, convicts must admit guilt before receiving a pardon.
“To be fair, I just don’t remember exactly, but I think that it is in the law that a person should plead guilty,” TASS quoted the president as saying. “Otherwise, if they don’t admit guilt, how can they be pardoned?"
The interview then turned to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of the Yukos oil company who was in a penal colony following a conviction in 2005 for charges that included fraud and tax evasion.
While serving his term in 2010, he was , convicted and given additional prison time.
Critics condemned both trials as politically-motivated.
Putin pardoned Khodorkovsky in 2013, just after the erstwhile oil tycoon sent Putin a personal letter asking for clemency so he could visit his mother, who was then critically ill. Observers noted that the pardon for Khodorkovsky, along with clemency for members of the dissident punk band Pussy Riot, who were serving two-year sentences for performing a song in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, came just a few months before Russia was in the Black Sea city of Sochi.
According to TASS, Putin, responding to a comment that Khodorkovsky had been pardoned without having admitted guilt, said:
"He did indirectly. In a letter to me, he pleaded [guilty] and asked to release him before his prison term ended because his mom was ill and died, and I did that, I pardoned him.”
The assertion that pardon recipients must admit guilt is false, and Khodorkovsky has denied that he admitted guilt in his letter to Putin.
Article 50 of states:“ Everyone convicted for a crime shall have the right to appeal against the judgment of a superior court according to the rules envisaged by the federal law, as well as to ask for pardon or a mitigation of punishment.”
Article 89, which enumerates the powers of Russia’s president, states that the president shall “decide on pardoning.”
The states:
“[A] pardon may be granted to: individuals who have been convicted by Russian courts for criminal offenses and are serving their sentences on Russian territory; individuals who have been convicted by foreign courts and are serving their sentences in Russia in accordance with international treaties to which the Russian Federation is a signatory; and individuals who have served a sentence but whose conviction remains on record.”
It adds:
“As a rule, pardons are not granted to: convicts who have knowingly committed a crime while on parole; convicts who repeatedly violate prison rules or other regulations while serving their sentences; convicts who have previously gotten an early release from prison (or waiver of other court-imposed punishment); convicts previously released through amnesty; convicts previously released from serving a sentence by an act of pardon; which previously replaced the sentence imposed by the courts with a more lenient punishment.”
On December 10, the same day Putin’s interview comments were reported, Khodorkovsky denied having “indirectly” admitted guilt in his personal letter to Putin.
“There was no direct or indirect confession of guilt,” Khodorkovsky told , an independent news outlet after being released from prison in 2013. “Vladimir Putin either really does not remember that I refused a pardon with a guilty plea, or deliberately misleads. I am grateful to him that he gave me the opportunity to say goodbye to my mother, and I have no complaints if this is age-related forgetfulness."
During Khodorkovsky’s first trial, which was roundly criticized by international observers such as the Council of Europe and the British Parliament, he insisted that he was innocent. The defense was , and some employees who could have served as defense witnesses were intimidated by the authorities. In addition, some of the accusations against him were for activities that were legal at the time they took place.
Shortly after his release from prison in December 2013, Khodorkovsky told the Russian media outlet that in his letter to Putin, he had written about his mother’s medical conditions and promised not to engage in political activity or seek damages for his lost stock in Yukos. Khodorkovsky did not say he had admitted guilt.