Mikhail Khodorkovsky arrives in Germany after release from prison

The former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has arrived in Germany after his surprise pardon by the president, Vladimir Putin, bringing an end to more than a decade behind bars.

On Friday afternoon the German foreign office confirmed that Khodorkovsky had arrived in Berlin, where he was met by former foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who helped to organise his chartered flight. The German embassy in Moscow had facilitated the trip, reportedly by fast-tracking his visa application.

Genscher told Der Spiegel that Khodorkovsky was "exhausted, but very happy to finally be free".

Khodorkovsky released a statement via Facebook saying that he had asked the Russian president to pardon him for personal reasons and was glad of the positive decision. He emphasised, however, that "the issue of admission of guilt was not raised". He personally thanked Genscher for his support and spoke of how much he was looking forward to "the minute when I will be able to hug my close ones and personally shake hands with all my friends and associates".

Various reports claim that Khodorkovsky has travelled straight from the airport to the nearby Charité Campus Virchow clinic, where his mother Marina had been treated for cancer before being discharged on 11 December. A spokesperson from the clinic declined to comment.

Genscher said that in the rush of his release, Khodorkovsky hadn't realised that his mother was already back in Russia, but that she was planning to travel to Berlin on Saturday to meet him.

Marina Khodorkovsky told Reuters on Friday she was ready to fly anywhere to meet her son. "I want to just hug him. I don't even yet what I am going to say to him," she said.

It is unclear whether Khodorkovsky will stay in Germany or travel on to Switzerland, as some media outlets have reported.

The plane that Khodorkovsky travelled in to Berlin was owned by the German businessman Ulrich Bettermann. Bettermann, Genscher and Khodorkovsky met at an event at Berlin's Hotel Adlon in 2003, where Khodorkovsky had spoken highly critically about corruption and party finances in Russia.

Putin made the surprise announcement on Thursday that he planned to pardon Khodorkovsky, who was regarded by Kremlin critics as a political prisoner. The Russian president signed the decree – which pardoned Khodorkovsky on the basis of "the principles of humanism" – on Friday morning.

The former oligarch, who became a staunch Kremlin critic after being convicted of economic crimes in trials that many believe were politically motivated, was seen as a potential political threat to Putin if released.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher's spokesperson Nicola Maier released a statement (in German) welcoming Putin's decision, describing it as "significant and very encouraging". The statement revealed that Genscher had met Putin in person twice to talk about Khodorkovsky, and that he had been aided in his efforts by chancellor Angela Merkel, the former German foreign minister and ambassador in Moscow. Merkel's spokesperson said: "The chancellor welcomes Mikhail Khodorkovsky's release. Over the last few years she has repeatedly lobbied the Russian president for Mr Khodorkovsky's release."

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also welcomed Khodorkovsky's release as "a good sign" that Russia was prepared to have a conversation about human rights. There was an "obvious link" between timing of the release and the upcoming Sochi Winter Games, he said.

Opposition-linked political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said there was no need to see anything other than purely cynical motives in Putin's decision to free Khodorkovsky. He said: "Putin has seen that there is a real problem with his and Russia's image in the west, and the Olympic Games are coming. This was a carefully planned decision timed to happen just before Christmas, so everybody could write about it, think how great it is, and then forget about it in the new year."

Oreshkin noted that Khodorkovsky's sentence was due to come to an end in nine months anyway, and said he was sure that Russian officials had "given him no option" but to ask for a pardon.

"Previously, Khodorkovsky has always refused to ask for a pardon, as it would suggest he recognises the legitimacy of the system and of the court cases against him. Whether they threatened him with a new case and a further seven or eight years in prison, or whether it was a statement about his mother's failing health, who knows."