Pardoned Russian tycoon won’t seek regain of oil assets

Released after ten years 10 in jail by Russian president Vladimir Putin, former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said that he would not go into politics to regain assets of his former and now-defunct oil company, Yukos.

Khodorkovsky, one Russia's wealthiest man, rebutted claims that there were conditions attached to his release and insisted that he had made no admission of guilt in asking Putin for a pardon.

"I do not intend to get involved in politics and do not intend to fight for the return of assets," Khodorkovsky told the Russian magazine the New Times in an interview.

Yukos was broken up and sold after his arrest. Its main production asset ended up in the hands of the state oil company Rosneft, which is now Russia's biggest producer and is headed by a close Putin ally, Igor Sechin.

Alongside fellow defendant Platon Lebedev, 50-year-old Khodorkovsky was convicted of stealing oil and laundering money in 2010. He had been in jail since his arrest in 2003 on fraud and tax evasion charges.

He had convicted in two trials that Kremlin crticis said were politically motivate punishment for challenging Vladmir Putin.

Last week, Putin pardoned the former oil tycoon on humanitarian grounds as his mother is ill.

Khodorkovsky, whose mother is ill and who said he requested the pardon for family reasons, said he would return only if he was certain he could leave again at any time for family reasons.

"He has already been in detention more than 10 years, and I think given the circumstances we can take the decision and very soon the decree to pardon him will be signed," Mr Putin had said.