The arrest of Khodorkovsky. Mikhail Khodorkovsky: "this is the last fight"
On Saturday morning in Novosibirsk, during a working trip, the head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was detained. The whereabouts of the detainee is not known. Armed men in camouflage uniforms removed Khodorkovsky from the plane on which he flew to Novosibirsk. The head of Yukos left with armed men who declared that they had the appropriate order. Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin, referring to M. Khodorkovsky's colleagues who witnessed the detention, said that the head of the company was on his way from Nizhny Novgorod to Irkutsk on a working trip, Interfax reports. On Monday, Khodorkovsky planned to return to Moscow.
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The Tu-134 plane of Meredian Airlines landed in Novosibirsk for refueling at about 5:00 am local time and was immediately sent to the parking lot. There, the plane was surrounded by trucks with burning headlights.
After that, two buses with armed men in camouflage and special forces officers in black uniform drove up to the plane. Bursting into the salon, they shouted "FSB! Weapons on the floor, we will shoot!".
A representative of the special unit told Khodorkovsky: "We have an order, you must go with us." Khodorkovsky replied: "Okay, let's go." Representatives of the special services were on the plane for about an hour.
"At present, the whereabouts of M. Khodorkovsky is not known to Yukos," the press secretary noted.
As it became known later, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office commented on the detention of the head of the Yukos oil company: "Khodorkovsky was summoned for interrogation on Friday, but did not appear; therefore, the investigation decided to bring him in forcibly," RIA Novosti quoted a representative of the information and public relations department as saying. Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
In turn, YUKOS press secretary Alexander Shadrin said that "on Thursday, indeed, the company received a summons that Khodorkovsky was to appear for interrogation at the prosecutor's office as a witness in some unknown case."
According to the press secretary, "the summons did not indicate what kind of case it was; the people who brought the summons were informed in writing that Khodorkovsky was in Novosibirsk, so he could not physically appear for interrogation."
Meanwhile, RIA Novosti has received information that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been brought to Moscow for interrogation at the Prosecutor General's Office.
The department's press service specifies that "at present, measures are being taken to call his lawyers in order to conduct an interrogation; no investigative actions are being carried out with Khodorkovsky without lawyers."
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian businessman and ex-owner of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos. According to his fortune, in 2003 he was considered one of the richest and financially most powerful citizens of the Russian Federation, his capital was estimated at $15 billion.
In 2005, he became a key figure in a high-profile criminal case against Yukos and was accused of fraud and tax evasion. As a result, the oil company was declared bankrupt, and its leader went to prison for 10 years and 10 months. Khodorkovsky's verdict had a resonant assessment in society - some consider him justly convicted, while others call him a "prisoner of conscience", prosecuted for political reasons. At the time of his release from prison, the amount in his account did not exceed $ 100 million.
Childhood and youth
Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich was born on June 20, 1963 in a capital working-class family. His parents Marina Filippovna and Boris Moiseevich were chemical engineers at the Kalibr plant, which produces precision measuring equipment.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky - from a working-class family According to Mikhail, his paternal relatives were Jews, but he himself felt Russian by nationality.
The family of the future oil tycoon lived poorly in a communal apartment until 1971, after which the parents received their own housing. From childhood, young Khodorkovsky was fond of experiments and chemistry, showing curiosity in this direction.
At the university, Khodorkovsky was considered the best student in the faculty, despite the fact that acute financial need forced him to earn extra money as a carpenter in a housing cooperative in his free time from studies. In 1986, he graduated with honors from the university and received a diploma in process engineering.
In his youth, Mikhail, together with like-minded people, creates the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth, which became his initial business project, with the help of which he earned his first big money. In parallel with his activities at NTTM, the future oil tycoon studied at the Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, where he met a relative of officials in the State Bank of the USSR Alexei Golubovich, which determined the future fate of Khodorkovsky.
Bank "Menatep"
Thanks to his first "brainchild" and acquaintance with Golubovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky took a strong cell in the world of big business and in 1989 created the Menatep commercial bank for scientific and technological progress, becoming chairman of its board. Khodorkovsky's bank became one of the first to obtain a license from the State Bank of the USSR, which allowed it to carry out financial operations of the tax, the Ministry of Finance and Rosvooruzhenie.
In 1992 professional biography Khodorkovsky took a different direction and began to lean towards the oil business. First, he is appointed to the post of chairman of the Investment Fund for Industry and Fuel and Energy Complex. The new position gave Mikhail Borisovich all the rights and powers of the Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy. After a few months of activity, he becomes a full-fledged deputy minister. To work in the civil service, he had to formally vacate the position of head of the Menatep Bank, but all the reins of government remained in his hands.
During this period, the oligarch decided to change the strategy of Menatep Bank. As a result, the financial organization began to focus exclusively on large clients who, with its help, carried out financial transactions and received services that required resolving issues in public authorities.
Bank of Mikhail Khodorkovsky "Menatep" Over time, the activities of "Menatep" began to go more into the investment industry. The priority areas were industry and metallurgy, petrochemistry and building materials, as well as food and chemical industries.
Yukos
In 1995, Khodorkovsky approached First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Soskovets with a proposal to exchange 10% of Menatep's shares for 45% of the shares of Yukos, the state-owned oil refinery, which was in crisis, the first in terms of oil reserves.
After the auction, Menatep became the owner of a 45% stake in Yukos, and then Khodorkovsky's bank acquired another 33% stake in the oil company, for which, together with 5 partners, he paid $ 300 million.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky at Yukos Later, at a cash auction, Menatep again received an impressive amount of shares in the most tasty morsel of Russia's oil business and control of 90% of Yukos shares.
Having become the owner of Yukos, Khodorkovsky began to lead the bankrupt oil company out of the crisis, but Menatep's assets were not enough for this. It took the oligarch 6 years and investments from third-party banks to bring Yukos out of an acute crisis, as a result of which the oil refinery became the leader in the global energy market with a capital of over $40 million.
Difficulties in doing business did not prevent Mikhail Borisovich from becoming a co-founder of the charitable organization "Openrussia Foundation" in 2001, the board of founders of which also included Mikhail Piotrovsky, Jacob Rothschild, and former US Ambassador to the USSR Arthur Hartman.
Later, on its basis, the All-Russian network socio-political movement "Open Russia" was created, which was persecuted in the Russian Federation. After Khodorkovsky was released from prison, the organization continued its work under his leadership.
The Yukos case
In October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who at that time became one of the richest people in Russia and the world, was arrested at the Novosibirsk airport and charged with embezzlement of public funds and tax evasion. After that, a search of the Yukos office was carried out, all shares and accounts of the company were arrested by the Russian prosecutor's office.
According to the investigation, later recognized by the court, in 1994 the oil tycoon created a criminal group whose activities were aimed at illegally seizing shares of various companies at a reduced price in order to resell them at market prices.
As a result, the largest oil company in Russia, Yukos, began to fall apart, as oil exports were stopped, and all the money from the company's assets went to pay off its debt to the state. As a result of the first criminal case in May 2005, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a term to be served in a penal colony. And the Yukos case against other managers of the company was investigated further.
In 2006, a second criminal case was initiated against Khodorkovsky and his business partner, the head of the board of directors of Menatep, on oil theft, the indictment of which consisted of 14 volumes.
Khodorkovsky called the crime incriminated to him an absurdity, since if he stole all the Yukos oil, which is 350 million tons, then from what then were wages paid to employees, taxes paid to the state in the amount of $ 40 million and wells were drilled, new fields were developed .
In December 2010, the court found Khodorkosky and Lebedev guilty, sentenced to 14 years in prison on a cumulative basis, later the term was reduced.
The convicts were transferred to a penal colony in the Karelian city of Segezha, and in Russia a loud discussion of the criminal trial of Khodorkovsky unfolded, which was publicly condemned by a public figure, an opposition politician, a former mayor of Moscow, a member of the Commission on Human Rights under the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Lyudmila Alekseeva and others, who believe that in the Yukos case the law was violated in a "malicious and arrogant manner." Also condemned Khodorkovsky's verdict and the West - the United States criticized Russian laws, the independence of the courts, tax policy in Russia and the inviolability of property.
As a sign of protest and non-recognition of the accusation, Khodorkovsky declared a hunger strike 4 times while serving his sentence. In addition, his stay in the colony was filled with various "adventures". After the first sentence in the Chita colony, he ended up in a punishment cell, because during the search, orders from the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on the rights of prisoners were confiscated from him, which, according to the administration, is prohibited by law.
In the same place, in Chita, the prisoner Khodorkovsky also became a “victim” of cellmate Alexander Kuchma, who cut the face of the oligarch with a shoe knife. According to Kuchma, unknown people pushed him to the crime, who literally “knocked out” actions against Mikhail from him. The prisoner said that he was also required to testify in front of the camera that he cut Khodorkovsky's face in the background of the latter's sexual harassment.
In December 2013, the President of Russia signed and released Khodorkovsky. The ex-head of Yukos was hastily released from the colony, even forgetting to issue a certificate of release, and transferred to St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, from where Mikhail flew to Berlin on a private plane provided by the ex-head of the German Foreign Ministry.
Upon his arrival in Berlin, Khodorkovsky spoke at a press conference and stated that after his release he did not intend to participate in politics, sponsor the Russian opposition, or engage in business. His key plan for the future was public activities aimed at the release of political prisoners in Russia.
Within a few years, the opinion of the former oil tycoon changed radically - before the presidential elections, he activated his activities, which experts assessed as a desire to break through to the top of power. Khodorkovsky himself declares that he is ready to become president of the Russian Federation in order to carry out a constitutional reform in Russia and redistribute presidential power in favor of society, parliament and the court.
Also on the Ukrainian Maidan in 2014, after the coup, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said he was ready to become a peacemaker in the Ukrainian situation. Then, speaking on stage in front of the Ukrainian people, he openly criticized the Russian authorities, and called the nationalists of Ukraine brave people who honestly defended their freedom.
While still in prison, Mikhail Borisovich began his literary activity. His work was analytical in nature. In the mid-2000s, the books “Crisis of Liberalism”, “Left Turn”, “Introduction to the Future. The World in 2020".
Later, Articles were published. Dialogues. Interview: Author's collection "and" Prison and freedom ". But the most popular was the entrepreneur's book "Prison People", which the author dedicated to his cellmates. Khodorkovsky called human life the only currency that exists in prison. In the dungeons, it is customary to go to the end in every situation, regardless of cowardice, even if you have to part with your life.
What Mikhail himself lacked was communication with friends, relatives, children and the opportunity to look beyond the horizon. The first thing after his release, the businessman went to the sea, jumped with a parachute and crawled along the rock. According to Mikhail Borisovich, the feeling of adrenaline in the blood brought him back to life.
Repeatedly in his interviews, Khodorkovsky touched on the topic of his relationship with the Russian president. In one of his last conversations with journalists, Mikhail Borisovich spoke about Vladimir Putin as a politician who does not have a strategy for leaving the post of head of state. According to the businessman, long term the presidential administration says that in society there is a stereotype of attitude towards Russians as a people who cannot live without a strong hand. Khodorkovsky called this form of attitude towards the people "a form of racism."
On a personal YouTube channel, as well as on social networks
From an interview with the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin:
[...] We have a category of people who got rich and became billionaires, as we say, overnight. The state appointed them as billionaires: it simply distributed huge state assets practically for free. They themselves said so: I was appointed a billionaire. Then, in the course of the play, they got the impression that God fell asleep on them, that everything was possible for them. And, in fact, an attempt was made to create in Russia a system of such oligarchic rule, when behind the backs of visible political figures stood people who did not show themselves on the surface, but actually formulated political decisions of national significance.[...]
Scheduled boarding
Yulia Mikhailina, Sergey Kurbatov, Olga Roshchina, Nadezhda Kevorkova
The third day, the richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in the cell of the capital's pre-trial detention center No. 1 "Matrosskaya Tishina". He is accompanied by four other defendants. In prison jargon, his cell is called "small special" - compared to the rest, packed to capacity, it is even considered comfortable. If the lawyers do not achieve his release or at least transfer to another prison, according to the decision of the Basmanny Court, he will be here until at least December 30. GAZETA tried to reconstruct the chronicle of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's last five days: from the summons issued by the Prosecutor General's Office for interrogation to his capture in Novosibirsk, indictment under seven articles of the Criminal Code, arrest and imprisonment in Matrosskaya Tishina.
Business trip
On October 23, 2003, at 2:30 pm, two investigators entered the Yukos office on Dubninskaya Street. According to the company's press secretary Alexander Shadrin, they presented identification cards in the name of the investigator of the Voronezh prosecutor's office Andrey Fedosov and the investigator of the Chita regional prosecutor's office Andrey Shorokhov. They introduced themselves as employees of the investigative team of the Prosecutor General's Office under the leadership of Salavat Karimov (deals with cases related to Yukos).
Fedosov and Shorokhov explained that they had brought a summons to Khodorkovsky to be summoned to the prosecutor's office. They were told that Khodorkovsky was on a business trip. As Alexander Shadrin later clarified to GAZETA, the head of YUKOS flew from Moscow to Saransk on Monday. His return was expected on October 27-28.
Shorokhov and Fedosov demanded that the fact of receipt of the document be noted. As a result, a note was made on the spine of the summons about Khodorkovsky's business trip, the signature of the deputy manager of Yukos-Moscow and the seal of the Yukos Oil Company were affixed.
Tracking Khodorkovsky's further movements around the country was not difficult, since this information was initially open - reports about the plans of the oil tycoon appeared in news agencies on Friday morning.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as part of his business trip Saransk - Samara - Nizhny Novgorod - Irkutsk, arrived on October 24 for the Russian Forum 2003 in Nizhny Novgorod. Yukos himself and the head of Yukos-Moscow, Vasily Shakhnovsky, were on the lists of YUKOS forum delegates. The latter could not attend because of his undertaking not to leave (he was charged with non-payment of taxes).
Due to the icing of the runway in Samara, Khodorkovsky was several hours late, when all the business events of the forum had already ended. At about 5 p.m. Khodorkovsky entered the VIP room, where he answered several questions to the journalists who were waiting for him.
He again recalled the transparency and openness of Yukos. He called the accusations against Vasily Shakhnovsky "ridiculous", and connected the search at the Agency for Strategic Communications the day before with the "Apatit case". Khodorkovsky behaved confidently. At least no one noticed any signs of despondency, although he never once smiled .
That evening Khodorkovsky, according to GAZETA, met with the presidential envoy in Privolzhsky federal district Sergey Kiriyenko, with representatives of the presidential administration, in particular, the 1st Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for Internal Policy of the President of the Russian Federation Sergey Abramov, as well as with members of the organizing committee of the forum - Gleb Pavlovsky and Chairman of the Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva.
According to Igor Yurgens, vice president of the RSPP, and Valery Fadeev, chairman of Delovaya Rossiya, Khodorkovsky planned to take part in the discussion of a new "social contract" between the government and society. But the head of Yukos was in a hurry. We agreed that on October 27, upon his return to Moscow, he would join the All-Russian Conference of Civil Organizations.
Around midnight, Khodorkovsky was already at the Nizhny Novgorod airport, where he was waiting for his flight to Irkutsk for the seminar "Power. Business. Society."
"Weapons on the floor - we will shoot"
A Tu-134 aircraft operated by Meridian airlines, which was flying from Nizhny Novgorod to Irkutsk, landed at Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo airport for refueling at 05:00. One of the employees of the airport, who witnessed the detention of Khodorkovsky, told GAZETA how it all looked from the outside.
“I have only seen this in movies. We didn’t explain anything to anyone, so it was all a real performance. And everything is real! As soon as the plane taxied to the parking lot, instead of a refueling truck, trucks drove up to it, thus blocking any of its movement. They filed a gangway, along which, accompanied by several people, the crew came out. Then the same people again entered the cabin of the airbus. After some time, two "grooves" with tinted windows drove up to the plane. One stood at the ladder, the second - at the tail of the aircraft. People in masks and camouflage jumped out of them and ran into the plane. I thought that it was either some kind of exercises, or real terrorists were caught.
In the cabin of the aircraft, the action unfolded like this. After the pilots left the plane, three FSB officers boarded it. Passengers, they introduced themselves as employees of the airport security service and asked permission to inspect the cabin. Having received a refusal, they examined only the cockpit. One of them contacted someone on the radio, and at the same moment armed men burst into the plane. After kicking down the door to the first-class cabin where Mikhail Khodorkovsky was, they shouted: “FSB! Weapons on the floor - we will shoot.
In addition to Khodorkovsky, there were four other people in the cabin - two assistants and security guards. Machine gun muzzles were pointed into the chest of each of them. One of the Chekists approached Khodorkovsky and said that he had an order to bring him to Moscow for interrogation. "Good. Let's go," Khodorkovsky replied and followed the armed men.
At 7:55 am local time Khodorkovsky was taken to the Prosecutor General's Office by an Aeroflot plane.
Seven articles of the Criminal Code
At 10:00 am on Saturday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was taken for interrogation to the building of the Prosecutor General's Office on Baumanskaya Street. At noon, representatives of the prosecutor's office announced that the entrepreneur's lawyers were urgently wanted to be present at the interrogation. As soon as lawyer Anton Drel arrived, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was charged under seven articles of the Criminal Code. The most serious of them are theft by fraud, tax evasion, failure to comply with a court decision, causing property damage by fraud, forgery of documents, embezzlement or embezzlement.
Some details of the accusations were explained by Natalia Vishnyakova, deputy head of the information department of the Prosecutor General's Office. Thus, according to her, Khodorkovsky is accused of being the chairman of the board of directors of OAO KB Menatep, he, together with the president of this bank, Platon Lebedev and other persons, organized the fraudulent taking of 20% of the shares of OAO Apatit. The investigation also established that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, managing OJSC Apatit from 2000 to 2002, sold the company's products at reduced prices to foreign structures controlled by Yukos. In addition, they, as the main shareholders of Yukos, committed tax evasion and fraudulently seized budgetary funds. To do this, they, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, acting through dummy legal entities, registered in zones with preferential taxation, organized the sale of oil and oil products from enterprises that are part of Yukos. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, also with the aim of tax evasion, paid tax payments not in cash, but in promissory notes of the oil company. Thus, in 1999-2000 Yukos underpaid taxes in excess of 17 billion rubles (556 million dollars). In total, the amount of damage caused by the actions of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, according to the estimates of the Prosecutor General's Office, is more than 1 billion dollars. And it is possible that this figure will increase even more. Natalia Vishnyakova noted that Khodorkovsky had been charged and how to an individual- non-payment of taxes for almost two million dollars.
Sausage and vodka
On the same day, the Basmanny Court of Moscow considered the appeal of the Prosecutor General's Office for the issuance of a sanction for the arrest of the businessman. The case was handled by Judge Rasnovsky, a former employee of the Prosecutor General's Office. Known for having issued a warrant for the arrest of Boris Berezovsky, as well as some defendants in the case of "werewolves in uniform."
Khodorkovsky was taken to court in a white jeep. He smiled at the journalists, having only time to confirm the fact of the charges. At 4:00 p.m., the court session began. Nobody counted on the promptness of the decision - the issuance of a sanction for the arrest of Platon Lebedev last summer was delayed until ten in the evening.
Someone Teimuraz Besaev, who heard about the arrest of the head of Yukos on the radio, rushed to the courthouse. Having bought vodka and sausages, he treated journalists who were pretty chilled.
Lawyer Drel left at 21.30. By this time, the head of Yukos was taken out through the back door and taken to Matrosskaya Tishina.
“Khodorkovsky has been charged, which I am not at liberty to talk about in detail,” Drel said. “But what I saw clearly confirms 100% my belief that this is an absolutely political case. would be completely absurd." The lawyer categorically denied the information that physical force was allegedly applied to Khodorkovsky during the arrest: “Everything was correct. The lawyer told reporters the words of the oil tycoon: “He asked me to tell you that he does not regret what happened to him today. He does not regret that he did not go abroad and is in a good mood,” said the lawyer.
According to Drel, no later than Wednesday, he intends to appeal the decision of the Basmanny Court. Although, judging by similar petitions in the case of Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky will still have to stay in prison. At least until December 30, when the term of the investigation and, accordingly, detention will expire. However, the arrest and investigation may be extended.
Drel also said that he himself was handed another summons to appear for interrogation as a witness. According to GAZETA, Khodorkovsky's defender once refused to testify. Formally, the chamber of lawyers forbade him to do this, citing the need to respect lawyer secrecy. But now it is obvious that if he does not re-appear for interrogation, the Prosecutor General's Office will go for a forced drive. “They can detain me, initiate a criminal case, get arrest warrants from the court,” Drel said. “I am the same person and no different from Khodorkovsky.” Drel's choice, by his own admission, is small: "Either I remain a lawyer and honestly look into the eyes of my children, or I go to the prosecutor's office on Monday."
"Matrosskaya Silence" is waiting for gifts
Now Khodorkovsky is in the cell of pre-trial detention center No. 1 "Matrosskaya Tishina". Or "small special", as they are also called by the locals. Khodorkovsky's friend and partner Platon Lebedev, recently transferred here from Lefortovo, sits in approximately the same room.
The daily routine for different cameras is different. There is also something in common. Lunch from 13.00 to 14.00. Hour walk. Bath once a week.
You can meet with a lawyer at least every day. You just need to complete all the necessary documents.
"The arrested Khodorkovsky is being held in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center on common grounds- said Deputy Minister of Justice Yuri Kalinin, - there is no reason to create any exceptional conditions for him. " However, Kalinin noted that Khodorkovsky is only the fifth in the cell, while in the general cells of "Matroska" there are 15-30 people.
According to Kalinin, there are currently 3,500 prisoners in the pre-trial detention center. Despite the fact that the insulator is designed for only 2.5 thousand people. "It's not scary yet," says Kalinin, "last year, 8,500 people were kept here. The prisoners had to sleep in turns."
The deputy minister also had better news for Khodorkovsky and his family. He said that no one would object if Khodorkovsky's family decided to give him a refrigerator and TV in his cell, and then leave them in the detention center as a gift.
Charges:
Art. 159 part 3- fraud on a large scale - from five to 10 years in prison with or without confiscation.
Art. 160 part 1- misappropriation or embezzlement - up to three years in prison.
Art. 165- infliction of property damage to owners by deceit, in the absence of signs of theft - from two to five years in prison.
Art. 198 part 2- tax evasion by an individual - up to five years in prison.
Art. 199 part 2- tax evasion by an organization - from two to seven years in prison.
Art. 315- malicious failure to comply with a court decision - up to two years in prison.
Art. 327 part 2- repeated falsification of documents - up to four years in prison.
Chronicle of the "Yukos case"
The oil companies Yukos and Sibneft have reached an agreement in principle to merge. Roman Abramovich will become the largest shareholder of the new company. Yukos shareholders receive a new company in their management.
The main shareholders of Sibneft and NK Yukos signed definitive agreements on the creation of YukosSibneft
Law enforcement agencies have detained Platon Lebedev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC MFO MENATEP, managing shares of Yukos Oil Company. The basis for the initiation of a criminal case and the detention of Lebedev was the materials of the verification of the appeal of the State Duma deputy, deputy chairman of the committee on economic policy and entrepreneurship Vladimir Yudin. The Prosecutor General's Office suspects Lebedev of embezzlement in 1994 of a 20% stake in OAO Apatit, owned by the state, in the amount of 283 million 142 thousand dollars (Article 159 Part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Aleksey Pichugin, head of one of the departments of the YUKOS security service, was also detained at the same time. He was charged with organizing the murder of two people in one of the regional centers of Russia in November 2002 (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On July 3, the Basmanny Court of Moscow issued a warrant for the arrest of Lebedev. He was placed in "Lefortovo".
The head of the oil company Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the ex-vice chairman of the board of Yukos, Leonid Nevzlin, have been summoned for questioning by the Prosecutor General's Office. A team of investigators is conducting a seizure at the office of ZAO M-Reestr, the registrar of Yukos and OAO Apatit. The company seized a computer server that stored information about the registers of more than 200 companies.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov says that arrest for economic crimes is an inadequate measure: "We have enough other life-threatening crimes where such a measure should be applied, but this is not justified in relation to economic crimes."
July 9
First Address to the President
Mikhail Bugera, a member of the "Regions of Russia" deputy group, sent a request to the Prosecutor General about the possible withdrawal of Yukos from paying taxes. The Prosecutor General's Office conducts supervisory checks. RSPP decided to send a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with the case of Platon Lebedev. In the meantime, the Prosecutor General's Office conducted searches at the MENATEP St. Petersburg bank, which is part of the MFI MENATEP, and began an unscheduled inspection of the activities of Sibneft, which is in the process of merging with Yukos.
President Putin gathers the leaders of the Duma factions, the Presidium of the State Council, as well as the leader of the RSPP, Arkady Volsky, and the head of the FNPR, Mikhail Shmakov. Volsky hands Putin a folder with an appeal from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs about the "YUKOS case". Putin expresses his position on Yukos: "Of course, I am against twisting arms and cameras. In general, I believe that economic crimes are not a means of solving problems. We must fight these crimes. But not with the help of cameras." At the same time, the president makes it clear that businesses need to lobby their interests through the State Duma less. The Prosecutor General's Office continues searches in Yukos. Part of the computer storage media was confiscated. The actions of the Prosecutor General's Office "dropped" Yukos shares by 6.4%, and the company's capitalization decreased by $1.78 billion (from the beginning of July - by $8 billion in total).
the 14 th of July
According to the President of Rosneft, Sergey Bogdanchikov, another case has been initiated
OMZ Director General Kakha Bendukidze was the first of the representatives of large Russian business to defend the head of the Yukos Oil Company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. According to Bendukidze, in connection with the actions around Yukos, the capitalization of the Russian stock market has decreased by about 10 billion dollars. Russia as a whole, according to the businessman, lost more in a few days "than the 283 million dollars that were paid for a 20% stake in Apatit." On the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a new case against Yukos on fraud after the address of the President of OAO NK Rosneft Sergey Bogdanchikov. He informed the authorities that 19% of the shares of Yeniseineftegaz disappeared from the accounts of Rosneft-owned Anglo Siberian Oil Company (ASOC), which, in the interests of Yukos, were transferred to the offshore structure Maastrade Limited.
July 16
Arkady Volsky meets with Vladimir Putin. President speaks for the first time about "breaking the rules of the game"
The head of the RSPP, Arkady Volsky, discusses the situation around Yukos with President Putin. After the meeting with Putin, Volsky makes it clear that Yukos's difficulties are connected not with long-standing privatization cases, but with violations of the "rules of the game", which now Yukos will have to "confirm". On the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office requested from the Ministry of Taxes and Duties materials on earlier tax audits of Yukos.
In the two weeks that have passed since the arrest of Yukos co-owner Platon Lebedev, the Russian stock index fell by 10%.
The Moscow City Court left Platon Lebedev in custody. He has been charged with tax evasion. According to the investigation, with the direct participation of Lebedev, four companies controlled by MENATEP and registered in ZATO Lesnoy, using Yukos promissory notes, evaded taxes worth 4 billion rubles. Natalya Vishnyakova, deputy head of the information department of the Prosecutor General's Office, commented on Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's statement regarding the arrest of Platon Lebedev: "Statements of this kind, as they say, are incorrect. They can be regarded as pressure on the court."
As part of the "Platon Lebedev case", searches were carried out at the office of the Sibintek provider company, which is part of the MENATEP group. Investigators seized a folder with personal files of employees of CJSC Rosprom and Yukos for 1997, a list of telephone numbers of the management companies of CJSC Yukos-EP and Yukos-RM, as well as minutes of meetings of the board of directors of Yukos for 1993-1999. On the same day, lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky was invited for interrogation at the Prosecutor General's Office. Investigators were interested in information about the attempt on the life of the head of the East Petroleum Handelsgez oil company Yevgeny Rybin - this is one of eight criminal cases where Yukos is mentioned in one way or another. In 1998, Dobrovinsky represented the interests of Rybin.
The Basmanny Court of Moscow refused to release Aleksey Pichugin, an employee of the security service of the Yukos company, accused of organizing a double murder and attempted murder. In addition, he faces new charges of attempted murder.
The Prosecutor General's Office has completed the investigation against Platon Lebedev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MENATEP. Lebedev began to get acquainted with the case, which consists of 146 volumes.
NK "YUKOS" became the owner of 20% minus one share of OAO "Sibneft"
President Putin warned against the politicization of the "Yukos affair". "It's least of all about privatization. It's about the Yukos question about the possible involvement of individuals in murder cases during the merger and expansion of this company. How can you interfere with the work of the prosecutor's office?" - said Putin, answering a question from American journalists.
September 26
There is information that Yukos is going to move abroad
The Financial Times reports that Yukos may move its headquarters abroad. According to the publication, the company is "considering the possibility of combining its operations with a major international oil company or initiating a series of smaller mergers with the aim of expanding business outside the Russian market and, as one of the possibilities, will move the headquarters outside of Russia."
The Prosecutor General's Office searched the Yukos business club, the Yukos-funded children's boarding school for the children of dead border guards in the village of Koralovo, and the office of Yukos' largest shareholder, State Duma deputy Vladimir Dubov. Prosecutors have confiscated a server with archival materials from MENATEP and Yukos. YUKOS representatives consider the incident "actions of intimidation."
On the same day, Yukos Oil Company and OAO Sibneft completed the merger deal. Yukos became the owner of 92% of Sibneft.
The 4th of October
The President does not rule out the possibility of selling part of the YukosSibneft shares to Western investors
President Putin on ExxonMobil's purchase of a 40% stake in Yukos in an interview with The New York Times: "We are for foreign capital to enter the Russian economy ... As for the purchase of a part of the Yukos company, this is, first of all, a corporate affair , but, of course, this is a possible very large deal. And I think it would be right if preliminary consultations are held with the government of the Russian Federation."
October 6
Mikhail Khodorkovsky about the Prosecutor General's Office: "It is beyond the red line"
Khodorkovsky gives a press conference in connection with searches in structures close to Yukos. “I don’t have a high opinion of the Prosecutor General’s office’s legal obedience and willingness to follow the law, but I didn’t even expect this from them ... This is beyond the red line ... They don’t play like that, even if there is no evidence and even if it comes to shoulder straps. stop,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky urged. "Why is it necessary to intimidate me through children?.. If the task is to push me out of the country or imprison me, then I must be imprisoned. I will not be a political emigrant," he promised.
17 October
Vasily Shakhnovsky, president of Yukos-Moscow, has been charged with tax evasion and falsification of documents. The businessman faces up to five years in prison. A written undertaking not to leave was taken from him.
On the same day, Platon Lebedev's lawyer, Anton Drel, was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor's office. Drel did not go to the interrogation. He sent a letter to Prosecutor General Ustinov with a request to cancel the call. The Moscow Chamber of Advocates gathers for an emergency meeting and decides to defend the lawyer's rights.
The 20th of October
The Ministry of Natural Resources states that it is necessary to check the conditions under which Yukos fulfills the license agreements.
October 21
Vladimir Kolesnikov does not want Khodorkovsky's arrest. Lebedev transferred to "Matrosskaya Tishina"
Alexey Pichugin's confessor, Father John, is summoned for interrogation to the prosecutor's office "to talk about his spiritual son." According to First Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Biryukov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is also awaiting a summons for interrogation, for whom "new questions" have appeared. On the same day, Platon Lebedev was transferred from the Lefortovo detention center of the FSB to a private in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. Resumed searches in the bank "MENATEP SPb". Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov spoke on the Yukos case: “Why did it happen that so many people broke the law in one company? We want to reassure everyone. court." According to Kolesnikov, the "YUKOS case" has nothing to do with the revision of the results of privatization, the flow of investments will not stop.
22 of October
In connection with the new criminal cases around Yukos, the RSPP, Delovaya Rossiya and OPORA wrote a letter to President Putin asking for a meeting. Among the businessmen who spoke in favor of an appeal to the president, in particular, were Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the executive secretary of the RSPP Igor Yurgens, the leaders of Interros (Vladimir Potanin), RAO UES of Russia (Anatoly Chubais) and Alfa Group (Mikhail Fridman) . Leonid Nevzlin, one of the Yukos Oil Company shareholders, filed a petition with the Israeli Interior Ministry to grant him Israeli citizenship.
October 23
In the case of tax evasion by Yukos, a search was conducted in the PR company Agency for Strategic Communications. Documents related to the pre-election activities of the Yabloko faction and 700 thousand dollars were confiscated. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky is demanding the return of documents from the prosecutor's office.
the 25th of October
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of the Yukos oil company, was detained in Novosibirsk. The Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized his arrest and detention until 30 December.
Adventures of foreigners in Russia. Western managers replace arrested managers
Pavel Moroz, Ludmila Romanova
After the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Chairman of the Board of YUKOS, the company is running an "emergency" management scheme. The operational management of the concern passed under the control of the first vice-president of Yukos, American Steven Theede, who previously worked at ConocoPhillips. Key activities of Yukos will also be carried out with the support of foreign managers.
Bet on foreign managers
Foreign managers are involved in the Yukos emergency management scheme. New managers cannot be blamed for the events of many years ago, since most of them are new to the company. If they want to detain them, it will not be easy for political reasons. According to Yury Borisenko, director of the group of large projects at the Vegas Lex law firm, the procedure for detaining foreigners in our country, if a crime is committed on its territory, differs little from the all-Russian rules. The exception is persons with diplomatic status. The differences are that a foreigner who is required to provide an interpreter may also require a conversation with representatives of the embassy. This creates not procedural, but political difficulties. However, this practice has become quite widespread in Russian business: suffice it to recall that Mikhail Khodorkovsky's partner in the deal with Sibneft was Yevgeny Shvidler, a US citizen. The head of the board of directors of Yukos, the ex-president of TNK, Semyon Kukes, also has an American passport.
The first person in the management structure of Yukos after the arrest of the chairman of the board of the company Mikhail Khodorkovsky was an American. At the end of August, Stephen Michael Theede was appointed first vice president and at the same time head of operations of the Yukos-Moscow managing concern. Previously, Theede was President of Exploration and Production - Europe, Russia and the Caspian - of the American ConocoPhillips. Now he has not only the operational management of Yukos, but also participation in the formation of the YukosSibneft management team. He will also take a leading position in the Yukos-Moscow company, since Vasily Shakhnovsky, who headed this structure, was yesterday nominated by the Legislative Assembly of Evenkia as his representative in the Federation Council. Thus, Stephen Theede also received the right to sign Yukos financially.
Oil production at Yukos, as before, will be the responsibility of Yukos EP President Yury Beilin, whose direct subordinate since 2000 has been Yukos Senior Vice President for Production Joe Mack. A native of Oklahoma, a former employee of the Schlumberger service company. The processing assets of Yukos, concentrated in Yukos RM, are still managed by Russian citizens - President Mikhail Brudno and his deputy Petr Zolotarev.
The Yukos financial bloc has been headed by US citizen Bruce Misamore for several years now. Yukos's international relations will be supported by Hugo Erikssen, a former Norwegian journalist who at one time was in charge of PR at Yukos. Since the beginning of last year, the company's relations with the governments of European countries have been carried out by the former British Foreign Secretary, Lord Owen, who heads Yukos International UK.
The Group MENATEP company, which owns about 61% of Yukos, is also under the protection of foreigners. In the event of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's incapacity, 50% of the group's shares held in trust will be managed by only one of the group's co-owners, who were previously appointed by Khodorkovsky himself. The first to receive this right was the head of the group, Platon Lebedev, who is now being replaced by Yury Golubev, a member of the Yukos board of directors, and one of the last, Lord Jacob Rothschild.
Protected by shareholders
Prospekt analyst Alexander Korchagin believes that if foreigners are insurance against force majeure, then only as shareholders. Managers would rather quit their jobs than go into conflict with the government of another state. But the shareholders, according to the analyst, may find it easier to negotiate with the state, and not with the disgraced managers.
Nevertheless, the shareholders of TNK transferred their assets to the Russian-British TNK-BP, half of which is now owned by the British. Other companies also do not refuse foreign shareholders, but it is primarily about the benefits for business. Last year, the state block of LUKOIL shares in the amount of 5.9% was placed on the London Stock Exchange. Analysts estimate that about a quarter of this company is owned by American shareholders, and its board of directors includes two Western representatives - ChevronTexaco Vice Chairman Richard Matzke and CEO Templeton Asset Management Ltd. Mark Mobius.
On October 25, the head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was detained and placed in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison.
The prosecutor's office accuses him under seven articles of the Criminal Code: fraud (Article 159), non-execution of a court verdict, court decision or other judicial act (Article 315), tax evasion by a citizen (Article 198), evasion of taxes and fees from organizations (Article 199), causing property damage by deceit or breach of trust (Article 165), forgery of documents (Article 327), embezzlement or embezzlement (Article 160).
Commenting on the accusations, the security officials explained: "Khodorkovsky was summoned for questioning last Friday, but did not appear before the investigators, defiantly ignoring their call. Khodorkovsky is accused of being the chairman of the board of directors of OJSC CB Menatep, together with the president of this bank Platon Lebedev and others organized the fraudulent acquisition of a 20% stake in Apatit OJSC. work. To date, the amount of damage caused by the actions of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is more than 1 billion US dollars."
A lot has already been written about the Apatit case. The ten-year-old privatization deal, checked and rechecked, including by the same Prosecutor General's Office, with court decisions made and settlement agreements concluded, did not in any way draw on the crime of the century. It was probably not easy to find its composition there. However, accusing Khodorkovsky of tax evasion is also no easy task: Yukos is considered the leader in transparency among large Russian corporations, and Khodorkovsky was the first among Russian billionaires to officially disclose the size of his fortune. Even more dubious are the justifications for forceful actions: "demonstrative failure to appear", according to lawyers, was an ordinary business trip, about which the Prosecutor General's Office was promptly informed. Why was it necessary to put on a performance with sending FSB special forces after a man who, at the height of the campaign against Yukos, had already flown abroad and back several times without showing the slightest desire to become a political emigrant.
However, no one believes in the criminal version. Here, for example, are the results of a telephone poll at the Ekho Moskvy radio station on October 26, 2003.
- Khodorkovsky arrested:
- really for what the Prosecutor General's Office charges him with - 18% (765 votes)
- for other reasons - 82% (3486 votes)
Enough has already been written about the real reasons for the attack on Yukos. The most popular version is that the authorities are frightened by the political ambitions of Khodorkovsky, who supports opposition parties. The Prosecutor General's Office does not touch oligarchs who are not interested in politics, although billions of dollars in Russia in the 90s were earned in the same way. The only troubles were Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, who were too interested in politics. Now they live abroad. Khodorkovsky's problems also began after he announced the possibility of participating in the 2008 presidential election and began financing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko. But he did not go abroad.
Whichever version turned out to be correct, the actions of the participants in the events in the cases of arrests and accusations of Yukos employees unfolded according to the same scenario. It can be assumed that the "Khodorkovsky case" will follow a well-trodden path.
Didn't wait
The Prosecutor General's Office followed a long and tortuous path to the arrest of Khodorkovsky.
On June 19, 2003 Alexei Pichugin, head of the Yukos department for economic security, was arrested. He was charged with attempted murder of Olga Kostina, a former employee of the Menatep bank. The assassination attempt itself took place in 1998, the investigation suspected Pichugin in 1999, but the arrest took place 4 years later. This case allowed the investigation to start searches in Yukos.
On July 2, one of the co-owners of the company, billionaire Platon Lebedev, was arrested on charges of abuses committed during the privatization of the Murmansk Apatit plant in 1993-1995. Lebedev was taken from the hospital ward.
On October 17, another shareholder, Vasily Shakhnovsky, was charged with tax evasion in 1998-2000 under a scheme that was then used by the vast majority of Russian entrepreneurs. While at liberty under a subscription.
On October 25, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested. He was charged, firstly, "Lebedev's" - on "Apatit", and secondly, "Shakhnov's" - in tax evasion. He has not yet been charged with the murders.
Based on the experience of Khodorkovsky's predecessors, it is easy to guess what will happen next.
Trying is not torture
As in the case of Lebedev and Pichugin, the lawyers tried to challenge the lawfulness of the detention, filed motions to change the measure of restraint for the accused, and were even ready to post bail for their release from custody. In both cases, the applications were rejected, bail was not accepted, and the period of detention was extended at the request of the investigation.
Lawyer Anton Drel said he would appeal Khodorkovsky's arrest no later than October 29. Apparently, the defense understands that the bail will also be rejected in this case, but will try to make it - an attempt, as you know, is not torture.
By the way, about torture. On July 17, Alexey Pichugin's wife announced at a press conference that psychotropic substances were used on her husband during the interrogation. On August 21, the "Committee for Civil Rights" sent a request to the UN Committee against Torture to protect the rights of a Yukos employee, and on October 15, more than a hundred parliamentarians asked the Basmanny Court to schedule an open hearing on the defense's complaint of torture. All this did not lead to anything - on July 24, the doctors who examined Pichugin (in the absence of lawyers, which is typical), stated that they had not found traces of psychotropic effects.
Trade union of oligarchs
Immediately after Lebedev's arrest, Vice-President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and businessman (the so-called "trade union of oligarchs") Igor Yurgens defended his colleague, but expressed himself confusingly: connection with the peculiarities of our privatization process and everything else.But the sequence of events, especially since we are approaching the election battles closely, suggests that it is possible that a certain synchronization has occurred.Probably, this can also be regarded as a signal of rejection, including and political position of Khodorkovsky".
Sergey Borisov, the president of the all-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses OPORA Rossii, spoke more clearly: solve the dispute quietly and civilly, and not arrest such a major figure as the head of Menatep in the hospital ward. Yukos is one of the legally perfect structures in Russia today, and I am well aware of the methods of work of the managers of this company. In legal matters, they are scrupulous to the point of tediousness. Therefore, I exclude that the top managers of the company put their hands in the pocket of the state."
After the Prosecutor General's Office accused Shakhnovsky of tax evasion, business was alarmed in earnest. The actions of the “siloviki” could have created a precedent theoretically paving the way for the arrests of almost all Russian business people. The RSPP, OPORA Rossii, and the all-Russian public organization Delovaya Rossiya, which joined them, sent a letter to President Putin with a complaint against the Prosecutor General's Office. The vice-president of the RSPP commented: “Recently, relations between business and government have been aggravated again. The state is bringing criminal charges of underpayment of taxes to entrepreneurs who voluntarily declared their income. dangerous." The authors of the message invited Putin to meet with entrepreneurs to discuss ways out of the current situation.
In response to this, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov called unfounded all the talk that his department "is ruining transparent companies, slowing down the flow of investments."
On October 25, after the arrest of Khodorkovsky, the leadership of the mentioned organizations gathered again and wrote a statement under the heading "The dialogue between business and government is interrupted" with the following words: "Only a clear and unambiguous position of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin can reverse the situation. Its absence will make the worsening of the economic climate irreversible and turning Russia into a country unfavorable for business development".
As of this writing, there has been no response from the president. And most likely it won't.
Egregious deputies
Russian politicians commented on the situation with varying degrees of harshness.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was ambivalent: "Such a form as arrest on suspicion of economic crimes is an excessive measure, there are enough other crimes where arrest is necessary," the prime minister said, not forgetting to add that "any violations must be thoroughly investigated" .
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov generally refused to comment on the detention of the head of Yukos. The Communists are in a difficult position - on the one hand, the managers of the oil corporation are included in the party's electoral lists, but, on the other hand, voters vote for the Communist Party precisely because of the criticism of the capitalists. Therefore, Ilya Ponomarev, head of the Information Technology Center of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said, carefully choosing his words: “We are not satisfied with the system of oligarchic capitalism that has developed in the country. We believe that what is happening now with respect to Yukos is not a systemic process, but a banal showdown between the various branches of power. And in this sense, we condemn what is happening now. Instead of investigating what is happening on the merits, the prosecutor's office is simply trying to psychologically intimidate everyone who has any contact with Yukos. search in the orphanage, which, in my opinion, is just a disgrace. That is, now there is just intimidation: any person who happens to be in close proximity to Yukos is under threat."
Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Union of Right Forces, financed by the oil giant, was more blunt: "It is clear to me that the reason for the initiation of criminal prosecution of many prominent shareholders of Yukos was the independent political position of the leadership of this company."
Moreover, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces issued a joint statement saying: “Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces express deep concern over the detention of Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Novosibirsk. The scale of what is happening is completely independent of the intentions of law enforcement agencies in changes the political situation in the country and calls into question the inviolability of the constitutional order in Russia.We hope that such actions are not a political decision of anyone and that the growth of the political crisis will be stopped and the situation will clear up in the near future.As deputies of the State Duma, we insist on unconditional observance of the rule of law in relation to all persons connected with cases opened by the prosecutor's office. We consider it necessary for the leaders of the factions of the State Duma to meet with the president."
Back in July, at an expanded government meeting, Vladimir Putin made it clear to the leaders of the main political parties that if the prosecutor's office will have reasonable questions to violators of the law, then highest level no one will give the command "back". It is unlikely that this time the answer will be different.
We ourselves are not local - we do not comment on legal aspects
The West has already reacted to the high-profile case, but somehow sluggishly.
On July 10, the US Embassy in Moscow asked the Russian authorities to clarify the events surrounding the arrest of Platon Lebedev: "We certainly do not intend to get involved in the legal aspects of the various cases that have been initiated, but we are concerned about the political background behind these actions, and we would like to clarify the situation with the help of our Russian interlocutors."
On July 18, the head of the European Commission's representation in Russia, Richard Wright, said: "I hope that the differences will be quickly resolved in accordance with the law, and a compromise will be found as soon as possible." But he did not make harsh statements: "We note the deepening in bilateral negotiations between the EU and the Russian Federation. Progress has been made in discussing such important issues as access to the internal market and energy."
After Khodorkovsky's arrest, US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow also expressed concern, but a moderate one: "I think that after these events, new doubts will arise among foreign companies that operate on the Russian market, as well as among potential investors." When asked how it might affect the plans of American companies ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, which expressed interest in buying shares in Yukos-Sibneft, Vershbow replied: "I think it's too early to talk about it yet." According to him, the US administration is concerned about the escalation of tension around the company: "Of course, we cannot comment on the legal aspects of this case, but after recent events there are questions that Russian legislation is being applied selectively.
The answer to the first two statements came in an interview with an anonymous source in the Kremlin administration to a journalist from The Financial Times: "The president cannot simply order prosecutors to stop investigating on suspicion of a criminal offense." Most likely, the response to Vershbow's statement and possible speeches by representatives of the US administration will be in the same vein.
Everything is calm on the market
On the one hand, Yukos shares fell with each new arrest or charge. But what are the scale of these falls? For example, the filing of charges against Vasily Shakhnovsky dropped the quotes by about 2% during the day. But the constant rise in oil prices, the non-spread of persecution of other companies, the understanding that the authorities of the Russian Federation do not need a redistribution of property, but the head of Khodorkovsky, led to the fact that there was no collapse in the stock market.
July 16 Yukos entered the top three most profitable companies in the world. The RTS index, despite rather significant falls, was generally growing throughout the year. Fluctuating below 380 a year ago, by mid-October it exceeded 600. Despite all the talk, including in the Western press, that the Yukos affair would reduce the country's investment attractiveness, on October 8, the international rating agency Moody's raised the sovereign rating ceiling for Russia to the investment level of Baa3 (previously we had Ba2).
A financial analyst at the Aton Group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the RBC news agency that, according to his forecasts, on Monday, October 27, the market will react to Khodorkovsky's arrest on Saturday with a drop in Yukos shares, but not a collapse.
It is true that since the start of Monday trading, Yukos shares have fallen by as much as 18 percent, but this is just the first reaction. Oil hasn't gone anywhere.
YUKOS itself is primarily concerned about investors' peace of mind: the company's management structure seems to have been specially designed in case of a war with the Prosecutor General's Office. Already on the day of Khodorkovsky's arrest, a statement was circulated stating that this event "would not have a significant impact on the company's production activities."
To the right is the zone, to the left is London
In August, at the height of the attack on the company, Khodorkovsky not only did not back down from his political plans, but increased funding for opposition parties and even bought a new media resource, the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper. Moreover, "MN" was headed by Yevgeny Kiselev, who consistently led the dispersed teams of NTV, TV-6 and TVS. Khodorkovsky's resilience is comparable only to his ability to forget the experience of his fellow oligarch politicians. According to a single scenario, the authorities are fighting not only with individual representatives of Yukos, but also with businessmen encroaching on the levers of power. Both Gusinsky and Berezovsky initially tried to increase their influence by acquiring funds mass media, with their help, then they resisted, appealed to the world community. However, then they nevertheless emigrated, and the media resources were sold.
"Khodorkovsky eventually has a road to London," Boris Berezovsky said this summer. And Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Kolesnikov once said: "I personally wouldn't want Khodorkovsky to be behind bars." This phrase can be understood in two ways.
During the summer, Mikhail Khodorkovsky constantly declared that he was not going to emigrate and was ready for arrest. According to lawyers, he left Saturday's interrogation in a good mood and still does not regret that he did not leave Russia. According to the latest reports, he will have to sit in "Matrosskaya Tishina" in a cell with several other prisoners. Vladimir Gusinsky lasted exactly three days in such conditions. But even if we assume that Khodorkovsky's confidence is due to the fact that he has not yet seen domestic prisons, it is impossible to transfer Yukos into the wrong hands with one "protocol number six".
Therefore, there are few chances for the release of Khodorkovsky in the coming days. The arrest warrant issued by the famous Basmanny Court is valid until December 30 and will expire after the Duma elections. If those who ordered the case are really concerned only with the financing of the parliamentary campaign by YUKOS, then in December the YUKOS case will decline and, possibly, the measure of restraint for both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will be changed. The judicial perspective of the criminal cases brought against them is rather weak.
However, it is unlikely that the matter lies in the Duma elections; the "political version" of the YUKOS affair is by no means exhausted by them. It's just that another "wrong" oligarch appeared in Russia, who decided to play not by the rules, but by the law, successfully legalizing his billions and wishing to live in a democratic country without crossing the borders of Russia. If the authorities really decided to eradicate these outrageous ambitions, then two months of preliminary preparations are only the beginning. If you wish, you can force anyone to emigrate, and this will not be the worst option.
Nikolai Dzis-Voynarovsky
Childhood and youth
Mikhail's father and mother were chemical engineers, all her life she worked at the Moscow Caliber plant, which produces precision measuring equipment. The Khodorkovskys lived quite modestly, their father constantly worked part-time.Mikhail graduated from Moscow school No. 277. There he was fond of mathematics and chemistry. In 1981, the future entrepreneur entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. Mendeleev. As a student, he worked as a carpenter at the Etalon housing cooperative. This did not interfere with his studies at all, he was the best student in his course. At the university, Khodorkovsky married a classmate named Elena. Well, in 1985, the son Pasha appeared in the family. Later, Mikhail graduated with honors from the institute with a degree in process engineering. After that, he began working as a released deputy secretary of the Komsomol MKhTI and graduated from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy.
First business
With the beginning of perestroika, private enterprise was allowed in the USSR. Mikhail Khodorkovsky became the head of the Intersectoral Center for Scientific and Technological Youth "NTTM". The organization was engaged in the import and sale of computers, as well as the cooking of jeans, the sale of alcohol. Such a business brought huge profits. The center also earned by cashing out funds. By 1998, the total turnover of the operation amounted to 80 million rubles. At that time, many of these operations were called dubious.Creation of a commercial bank
NTTM got the opportunity to create a cooperative bank. It happened in 1989, the bank became known as the Commercial Innovative Bank of Scientific and Technical Progress. Later it was renamed to "Menatep". Khodorkovsky became chairman of the board.Well, after obtaining a license from the State Bank, "Menatep" got the opportunity to serve the funds of the Ministry of Finance, tax, "Rosvooruzhenie". After the collapse of the USSR, Menatep took part in privatization. For the new industrial empire, a separate organization, Rosprom, was created. By the end of the 90s, only mining enterprises, for example, Murmansk Apatit, remained in the ownership of Khodorkovsky from a huge number of objects. Ten years later, Khodorkovsky and his partner Lebedev were convicted for violations that were revealed during the privatization of Apatit.
And before that, in 1995, after the end of the "voucher" privatization, the Yukos company passed into the ownership of Khodorkovsky through loans-for-shares auctions. After the purchase, Khodorkovsky lost interest in banking and became interested in the development of industrial business. Bank "Menatep" was taken over by hired managers, they made it a branch in St. Petersburg "Menatep SPb", later "Trust". Khodorkovsky's banking business was later completely bought out. And during the default of 1998, Menatep collapsed, he could not repay loans in foreign currency and lost his license. Several foreign banks financed Menatep on the security of Yukos shares. In order not to lose control over the company, Khodorkovsky announced his intention to take an additional issue of shares, the banks relented. This undermined the reputation of the entrepreneur and his companies in financial circles for a long time. Mikhail applied for new loans to Western banks only in 2003.
Yukos
In 1992, Khodorkovsky became the head of the Fund for the Promotion of Investments in the Fuel and Energy Complex with the rights of the Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of the country. Then he was the chairman of the board of directors of Menatep. 
And from 1997 until 2004, Mikhail Khodorkovsky served as co-owner and head of the Yukos oil company. She passed to the entrepreneur after loans-for-shares auctions.
Arrest. First case
On October 25, 2003, Khodorkovsky was arrested at the Novosibirsk airport. He was accused of tax evasion and embezzlement. A few days later, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office arrested the Yukos shares.At the time of his arrest, Mikhail was considered the richest Russian, and he was ranked 16th on the Forbes list. At the same time, Khodorkovsky, along with Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Nemtsov, were considered as a presidential candidate.
The reason for starting an investigation against the owners of Yukos was the request of State Duma deputy Yudin about the legality of the privatization of the Apatit plant in 1994. It was controlled by Khodorkovsky and his associates. A few days later, another criminal case appeared about tax evasion by structures that are under the Yukos oil company and embezzlement. Later, the case broke up into several, in relation to individual employees. However, according to some versions, there is also a political component in the case.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky on video
At first, the investigation was carried out in strict secrecy, but on July 2, 2003, the case became known after Platon Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors of Menatep, was arrested.
Khodorkovsky was not very worried at first by the Prosecutor General's Office. He was only interrogated as a witness. But in the fall, serious claims appeared against the entrepreneur. And on October 25, 2003, Mikhail's plane at the Novosibirsk airport was blocked by FSB officers, Khodorkovsky was sent to Moscow to the investigative committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, then placed in a pre-trial detention center. Claims against him are the same as against Lebedev, theft of other people's property, non-execution of a court decision, damage to property, tax evasion, forgery of documents, misappropriation, embezzlement of other people's property.
At this time, the accounts and assets of Yukos were frozen. Part of the money went to taxes and salaries to employees, the other was deducted in favor of the state on account of debts. The company began to fall apart.
In May 2005, Khodorkovsky was found guilty. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison with serving a sentence in a penal colony, later it was reduced to 8 years. The entrepreneur was serving his sentence in correctional colony number 10 of the general regime of Krasnokamensk, Chita region.
Second Khodorkovsky case
At the end of 2006, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were transferred to the pre-trial detention center in the Chita region. They were charged with new charges - theft of oil, namely 350 million tons of fuel. According to new episodes, the disgraced oligarch was threatened with up to 22 years in prison. In the winter of 2009, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were transferred to Moscow, where hearings on the criminal case began. At the end of 2010, the court found the businessman and his colleague guilty, and sentenced them to 14 years in prison, taking into account the previously served time. Later, the period was reduced by a year. The convicts were transferred to correctional colony number 7 in the Karelian city of Segezha.About the clan of enforcers
In the spring of 2011, the European Court of Human Rights recognized that certain rights were violated in the first case against Mikhail, but the case was not recognized as politically motivated.
