Sergei Shimkevich, the ex-head of a Yukos subsidiary, has been paroled by a Tomsk court, RIA Novosti reported on June 19.

In February 2012, Vladimir Pereverzin became the first former senior Yukos manager to be released from prison. Pereverzin’s sentence was shortened in accordance with amendments to the Russian Criminal Code in 2011. Pereverzin had served over seven years in detention. Similarly, in October 2012, former Yukos trading unit head Vladimir Malakhovsky was released thanks to the changes in the Russian Criminal Code, after serving nearly eight years in detention.

In August 2012, a court granted release on parole to Alexei Kurtsin, an ex-Yukos executive who had been imprisoned for eight years. Shimkevich now joins him as the second senior Yukos official released on parole.

Despite these developments, the Russian judiciary has to date continued to treat Khodorkovsky and Lebedev as exceptions in the favourable application of reforms or parole rules. Moreover, investigators and prosecutors continue to pursue trials in absentia against Yukos-connected individuals who have fled to safety abroad. Most recently, in August 2012 a Moscow court found former Yukos co-owner Vladimir Dubov guilty in absentia, sentencing him to eight years in prison.