A Moscow court on Tuesday granted the early release from jail of a lawyer for fallen Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in another sign the Russian president is seeking to present a more liberal image to the west.

Human rights activists have been calling for the early release on parole of Svetlana Bakhmina, 39, ever since she was sentenced to six and half years in jail in 2006 for embezzlement and tax evasion as part of Russia’s politically-charged legal campaign against Mr Khodorkovsky’s Yukos oil group. She had been kept in a prison colony hundreds of miles away from Moscow and her children. She gave birth to her third child last November in detention, further fuelling cries of activists who said pregnant women convicted of non-violent crimes were normally granted early release.