PUTIN - Show of clemency - demonstration of power

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Why even a show of clemency toward an adversary is a demonstration of power for Vladimir Putin

[ http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/20 ... mir-putin/ ]

Henry Meyer, Ilya Arkhipov, Bloomberg News | December 20, 2013 2:51 PM ET

For Vladimir Putin, even a show of clemency toward an adversary locked away in a remote prison is a demonstration of power.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released from prison Friday and left Russia for Germany after Mr. Putin signed a decree pardoning the former oil billionaire for humanitarian reasons. The Russian leader unexpectedly announced he was pardoning his country’s most prominent prisoner Thursday in a comment lobbed at a throng of reporters as he left his annual news conference.

The move changed the conversation two days after a US$15-billion bailout to Ukraine. That deal had set off alarms around the globe about Soviet-style expansionism, adding to a crescendo of criticism over gay rights abuses.

Ending more than a decade of imprisonment for the former owner of Yukos Oil Co. shocked everyone, including Khodorkovsky’s mother and lawyers, and underscored the Russian leader’s aura of power. While the move helps shore up Mr. Putin’s image as he prepares to host the world at the Winter Olympics in February, it’s also a reminder of his dominance, says Masha Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
“With negative publicity pouring all over him, Putin dramatically changed the news cycle,” she said Friday.

“It only reinforces the way that Russia is managed as a political monopoly of one man. The most important decisions are only his to take, and he takes them in secrecy and keeps everyone in the dark.”

Mr. Putin is working through some of the biggest human-rights complaints about his regime as the country prepares to stage the Winter Olympics in Sochi Feb. 7-23.

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[ http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/20 ... mir-putin/ ]