MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday reduced the jail sentence of an associate of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to time served, setting the stage for his imminent release.
Platon Lebedev was convicted of tax evasion in 2005 and embezzlement and money laundering in 2010, charges that his supporters have maintained were Kremlin retribution for Khodorkovsky’s political ambitions.
It was not immediately clear when Lebedev would be released from prison. Khodorkovsky was freed as part of a wide-ranging presidential amnesty late last year.