Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Russian Banker Jailed For Helping Yukos Embezzle Money

The Yukos building in Moscow (file photo) (AFP)

March 13, 2006 -- A Moscow court today sentenced the head of a Russian investment company to five years in prison for helping a number of executives of Yukos, once Russia's largest oil producer, to embezzle millions of dollars of state money.

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March 13, 2006

The court found Dmitry Velichko, president of the Rosinkor investment company, guilty of taking some 278 million rubles (nearly $10 million) from the state's coffers. He was arrested in January 2005.

Also today, a Moscow court said it will hear a bankruptcy suit against Yukos on March 28. Foreign creditor banks filed the suit last week in an attempt to retrieve nearly $500 million.

The founder of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement. The trial against him was widely seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to end his political ambitions.

(ITAR-TASS, Interfax)

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

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

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

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Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More