Khodorkovsky's Release Why Now and what Next?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's sudden release from a correctional colony in Karelia after ten years of imprisonment on 20 December 2013 raises a whole series of questions. First, why was he released at this time? After all, his sentence was due to end in August 2014. Second, what were the conditions attached to his release? Was some sort of deal made with President Vladimir Putin in which Khodorkovsky was given his freedom in exchange for a promise to keep out of politics and to soft-pedal the claims of shareholders in Yukos, the oil company he headed before his arrest? Third, what would Khodorkovsky do now? Finally, while in jail, Khodorkovsky had become one of the most perceptive analysts of contemporary Russia. Now that he was free to speak without prison censorship, what would be his analysis of Russian politics?