Jailed Russian tycoon leaves house arrest: reports

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a Russian tycoon placed under house arrest in September in a move that rattled markets, has reportedly been released from under house arrest just hours before President Vladimir Putin's annual televised press conference.
A lawyer for Yevtushenkov, Vladimir Kozin, was quoted by Interfax news agency on Thursday as saying his client had been freed.
The last-minute release echoes a similar move last year, when Putin announced after his annual press conference that another tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, would be set free.
Shares in Sistema, a company that Yevtushenkov controls and manages, surged by more than 30 percent in the early hours of trading on Moscow's MICEX stock exchange.

One of Sistema's most lucrative assets the oil company Bashneft was transferred to the government this month.