Putin returns to state control to go forward

President Putin asserts that the Yukos case was a one-off attack on illegality. It's clear, though, that a plan to put Russia's biggest companies more firmly under state control and to change the balance of the economy is under way. The president, not big business, will decide which way Russia goes. Ben Aris reports.

TWO WEEKS AFTER Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested, a company official spoke out. “The relationship between government and big business has changed,” said Yukos CFO Bruce Misamore, standing at the back of a press conference held early last November. “The way that Yukos is run now depends on the way that Russia is run,” he predicted.

The press conference had been called to celebrate the first meeting of the joint board of YukosSibneft as the merger between oil majors Yukos and Sibneft neared completion.

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