From the Editor: Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyers have filed a petition with the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita on the conditional early release (that’s Russian for “parole”) of the ex-head of YUKOS. At a recent press conference in Moscow, lawyer Yuri Schmidt particularly underscored that every prisoner has the right to conditional early release, and that such a request does not seek pardon or amnesty. In the words of the defense, neither admission of guilt nor contrition are required of a prisoner for the submission of a petition on conditional early release. In the meantime, the chief of the administration of the Federal Service of Punishments for Chita Oblast, Yunus Amayev, commented that “Conditional early release has to be earned”. And he added: “…To be granted parole people need to work, to behave well, not to violate the rules…. There is no other way.” We asked our correspondent Grigory Pasko to tell us about how the procedure of conditional early release from Russian places of confinement usually takes place. Grigory replied that he had described this procedure in detail in one of his publications in the magazine «Nevolya». We decided that our readers would also find this article interesting, and offer it here in two installments. Read Part 2 here.