Russia's Mikhail Khodorkovsky Granted Switzerland Visa

Switzerland has granted a three-month visa to the former Russian Oil Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was recently freed after 10 years in a Russian jail.

"The visa allows a three-month stay in the Schengen area," the Swiss embassy in Berlin said, referring to the 26-nation free-travel zone in Europe.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been staying in a German hotel following his release earlier this month.

His family lives in Switzerland and he has business there.

At the time of his arrest more than 10 years ago,Mikhail Khodorkovsky was Russia's richest man, and he used some of his wealth to fund opposition parties.

He was found guilty of fraud and tax evasion, and has always insisted that his conviction was politically motivated.

Since being freed on Dec 20,2013 and immediately flying to Germany, he has vowed to stay out of Russia.

 Freed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (C) poses with his parents Marina and Boris, son Pavel (R) and his first wife Yelena (L) ahead of a news conference in the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, December 22, 2013

Mikhail Khodorkovsky Timeline

• 1995 - Buys Yukos for $350m
• 2003 - Arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud
• 2005 - Jailed for eight years (running 2003-11)
• 2007 - Yukos declared bankrupt
• Dec 2010 - Convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, jailed for 13 years (2003-16)
• Dec 2012 - Sentence cut by two years, release date 2014
• Nov 2013 - Told that Mr Putin would pardon him without admission of guilt
• 20 Dec 2013 - Woken up at 2am and freed from jail after presidential pardon

Note
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree granting a pardon to Russia's former richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, allowing his release after over a decade in prison.
The Kremlin made the announcement after Russians were waiting for his release from a prison camp.
"Guided by humanitarian principles, I decree that Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky ... should be pardoned and freed from any further punishment in the form of imprisonment. This decree comes into force from the day of its signing," said the decree signed by Putin and published by the Kremlin.

Political analysts put the announcement down to Kremlin's bid to improve its dismal rights record and international image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi inFebruary 2014

After 10 years in prison, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chairman of Yukos Oil and once Russia’s richest man, walked free from a penal colony in northern Russia on Friday and flew to Berlin on a private jet.

In a hastily arranged exit, Mikhail B Khodorkovsky was whisked to Berlin hours after Putin, in Moscow, signed a 34-word decree pardoning him of his crimes.

Slightly more than a decade after his arrest by armed agents on an airport tarmac in Siberia, Mr. Khodorkovsky emerged into freedom on another airfield, smiling tightly as a former German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, greeted him and clasped his hand.

German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, right, welcoming Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky at the airport in Berlin-Schoenefeld Friday, Dec. 20, 2013.

Mikhail B Khodorkovsky said he had applied for a pardon more than a month ago, on Nov. 12, and that he was “happy for a favorable decision.”