(CNN) -- For the first time since his release, Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky is telling the world about the 10 years he spent behind bars as a critic of the Kremlin. The oil magnate, who backed an opposition party, had been in prison since 2003 and was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and fraud. He was due for release next year, but President Vladimir Putin signed an amnesty decree for him Friday. In his first television interview, the former Yukos oil tycoon told CNN's Christiane Amanpour there were no conditions for his release. "Mr. Putin, on a number of times, publicly said that he was ready to consider the question of my pardoning -- but I had to say I was guilty for that," Khodorkovsky said during the interview in Berlin. "That was an unacceptable condition for me."
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NEW: Khodorkovsky says he'll be involved in "social activities," not politics or business
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Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released Friday after 10 years in prison
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He says he was stabbed in the face while he was in prison
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He says Putin might have pardoned him earlier if he had said he was guilty
He has said his prosecution was part of a @placeholder campaign to destroy him and take control of the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s.