ON JULY 2, Platon Lebedev, chairman of Yukos's
parent company and Russia's thirteenth-richest man admitted
himself to hospital complaining of chest pains. The same day,
he was arrested and secured in Lefortovo prison, a former KGB
lock-up usually reserved for spies and traitors. He was
charged with defrauding the state of more than $280 million in
the privatization of a fertilizer company in 1994.
In the ensuing days, the offices of Yukos were
searched by armed guards and investigations were opened into
charges of tax evasion and murder by the oil company's senior
management.
Mikhail Khordorkovsky, the well-connected chief shareholder in
Yukos and Russia's richest man, was called in for two hours of
questioning at the prosecutor-general's office.
The Russian equity market reeled. Until then it had been
enjoying its best six months since the 1998 crisis. UK oil major BP
had shown great faith in its stability by investing around $6
billion...
