Platon Lebedev, the ex-business partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has followed in the Kremlin critic’s footsteps by walking free after over 10 years in jail. <br /><br />He had been due for release in May but Russia’s Supreme Court reduced his sentence to time served. <br /><br />Also convicted of financial crimes, Khodorkovsky was pardoned last month by President Vladimir Putin. <br /><br />The move was widely seen as an attempt by the Russian leader to improve his image before February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. <br /><br />Lebedev, whose arrest in 2003 foreshadowed Khodorkovsky’s months later, was the former Yukos oil company chief’s co-defendant in two trials that <br />Putin’s critics said were politically motivated.
