Moscow  - Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied for parole on Wednesday, gambling on a reprieve under Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, his lawyer told journalists in Moscow.

"It took all our strength to convince Mikhail Borisovich (Khodorkovsky) to take this step," Yuri Schmidt who heads his defence was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

"Today, we handed a request for parole to the Chita regional court," he said, naming the city in east Siberia where Khodorkhovsky is serving the fifth year of his detention.

Schmidt said the request for parole was within the law as Khodorkovsky has served over half of his eight-year sentence.

Former corporate lawyer Medvedev's emphasis on the rule of law convinced the defence team, Schmidt said, that he was more liberal than his predecessor Vladimir Putin.

"We place much hope in the words of Medvedev on the independence of the judiciary and what has impressed me is that these words have been confirmed by real acts," Schmidt said at a news conference in Moscow entitled after a quote from Medvedev: "The end of legal nihilism?"

But Medvedev this month ruled out an executive pardon for Khodorkovsky, saying it was not for the state to interfere in the case.

Prosecutors filed new charges of embezzlement and money laundering against Khodorkovsky last year, threatening to extend his jail sentence indeterminately.

Once Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 on charges of large-scale tax fraud at his oil company Yukos.

He has rejected the accusations as politically motivated so the state could seize control Yukos' assets.

Analysts point to the case as the beginning of Putin's drive to extend the Kremlin's hand over the lucrative oil sector.

State firm Rosneft, chaired by Putin's former chief of staff Igor Sechin, gobbled up the bulk of Yukos' assets in a forced bankruptcy auction, allowing it to grow into the country's largest oil firm. (dpa)