Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Russian Companies With Ties To Yukos Under Scrutiny

6 October 2005 -- Russian prosecutors today searched more financial companies linked to jailed oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovskii's former oil company, Yukos.

TEXT SIZE - +

October 06, 2005

Sergei Meshcheryakov, head of the Interior Ministry's economic security department, told reporters that the probe involves both Russian and foreign firms, as well as companies not directly linked to Yukos.

"[It involves] a number of firms and structures, not only those linked to Yukos but also others, which are suspected, on solid grounds, of legitimizing money that was acquired illegally, and not only on Russian territory," Meshcheryakov said.

The offices probed today in Moscow include Open Russia, a foundation ran by Khodorkovskii.

Open Russia said today that prosecutors also questioned the directors of its regional branches.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office yesterday said it suspected Yukos managers and employees of diverting $7 billion from oil sales between 2000 and 2003 and transferring the money to front companies overseas.

Khodorkovskii is currently serving an eight-year jail sentence on tax evasion and fraud charges he says are politically motivated.

(RIA-Novosti/Gazeta/Interfax/Ekho Moskvy)

See also:

RFE/RL Speaks With Expelled Khodorkovskii Lawyer

Khodorkovskii Appeal Rejected, Duma Hopes Dashed

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin covers his face during a conference of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on February 9.

Administrative (Resource) Breakdown

Administrative resources make up the glue that holds authoritarian structures like Putin's power vertical together. And there have been plenty of signs recently that this glue is weakening. More

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More