Russian executive's fate fuels fears of 'who's next'

Boston Globe ^ | June 19, 2005 | Anna Dolgov

[ratemy]

MOSCOW -- A new buzzword has permeated Russian business and politics since former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced on May 31 to nine years in prison for fraud and tax evasion: ''fear."

Demonstrators confront it at protest rallies, business people concede it as they move their capital abroad, and opposition politicians draw parallels with the onset of dictator Josef Stalin's Great Terror purges.

To many, the conclusion of Khodorkovsky's trial appears to be the beginning, rather than the end, of a chapter in Russian history.

Igor Shuvalov, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, called the trial a ''show flogging" that should serve as a lesson to others. Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov warned that ''this case won't be the last. We have more cases in our cartridge clip."

The demise of Khodorkovsky's company, the oil giant Yukos, is also a source of nervousness among Russian business people. He had assembled the conglomerate through shadowy privatization deals typical of the 1990s, and then transformed it into a company with transparent Western-style accounting.

But late last year, the state-owned oil company Rosneft acquired Yukos's main oil-producing branch through a plot that critics described as a ''scam" typical of street hustlers. A shell company bought the unit at an auction in which critics say the Kremlin was pulling all the strings. Four days later, Rosneft -- headed by a senior Kremlin aide -- took over the shell company.

''Every company that has some tasty bit may now follow the fate of Yukos," said Georgy Satarov, who was an adviser to former president Boris Yeltsin and now is head of INDEM, a political think tank based in Moscow.

[ratemy]

Right on...good report from The Globe.

[monday]

"business people concede it as they move their capital abroad"

Only fools would do business in Putin's Russia.

[GarySpFc]

Only fools would do business in Putin's Russia.

Yep, and I guess you would call fools those who make a 30% return on their money.

[Wiz]

Back to Stalinism...

[Wiz]

ping

[Malesherbes]

Khodorkovsky got what he deserved. He and the other oligarchs are not "businessmen." They are a bunch of pirates who make the worst crooks on Wall Street look like pikers.

[cripplecreek]

"Only fools would do business in Putin's Russia."


Fools who can overlook the retro direction Little Joe is taking Russia in will do business in Russia.

[GarySpFc]

Don't you think it's important to hear both sides of the story? Have you been screaming at what Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are doing in the Ukraine? Did you think the thievery Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay, and others did here in America was acceptable?

Did you know Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole Yukos on a sham deal for $200,000? The Russian public has been screaming about how the oligarchs stole the national resources for years, and Putin has for the most part been restrained. Khodorkovsky broke the agreement to pay his taxes and stay out of politics. He got what he deserved.

[GarySpFc]

Don't you think it's important to hear both sides of the story? Have you been screaming at what Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are doing in the Ukraine? Did you think the thievery Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay, and others did here in America was acceptable?

Did you know Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole Yukos on a sham deal for $200,000? The Russian public has been screaming about how the oligarchs stole the national resources for years, and Putin has for the most part been restrained. Khodorkovsky broke the agreement to pay his taxes and stay out of politics. He got what he deserved.

[GarySpFc]

Fools who can overlook the retro direction Little Joe is taking Russia in will do business in Russia.

Fools are gulliable and believe everything they read in the mainstream media. Has anyone noticed those who have been to Russia and seen what is going on support the government? Those who have been there have a realistic view, and not the hyper-skepticism of fools. I also find it ironic that the majority of those who support most Russian views are also former American military personal, whereas those who do not have never served.

[monday]

"Yep, and I guess you would call fools those who make a 30% return on their money."

I suppose of you are a mafia type with connections to former KGB agents you can make profits in Putin's Russia but western style businessmen are fools to do business there. They get robbed and thrown in prison.

[cripplecreek]

Don'r care what you think.

[GarySpFc]

I suppose of you are a mafia type with connections to former KGB agents you can make profits in Putin's Russia but western style businessmen are fools to do business there. They get robbed and thrown in prison.

I have owned my own insurance agency in the Kansas City area for 36 years, and have been self-employed all that time. When was the last time you traveled to Russia?

[monday]

"Did you know Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole Yukos on a sham deal for $200,000?"

The oil company he got control of had more debt than assets and zero income and in fact was losing money due to corrupt government management. It was worth less than $200,000. Khodorkovsky turned it into a billion dollar company, with western style accounting and transparent reports.

Since Putin stole it, and passed it to one of his cronies, it has lost much of it's value already and will loose the rest as Putin and his pals secretly siphon off it's assets. It will go from one of the worlds largest oil producers back to where it came from, with no infrastructure and no ability to produce oil.

It's interesting that you think this is good? Are you always such a big fan of government corruption or is it just Russian corruption you enjoy?

[GarySpFc]

I suppose of you are a mafia type with connections to former KGB agents you can make profits in Putin's Russia but western style businessmen are fools to do business there. They get robbed and thrown in prison.

Remember your words the next time you ride a Boeing Airplane, because the new 787 and 747 Advanced are designed in Boeing's Moscow Design Center. Oh, that's right, you would rather ride in the European Airbus, with tails that fall off.

[jb6]

And US business is paralyzed because of Kenneth Lay? Better run and tell Toyota, Nissan and Honda who this year are supposed to join Renault, Jeep Chrystler, Chrystler, Ford, BMW and Mercadies in their operations in Russia. And that's just the automotive plants. Boing, IBM, Intel, etc are all there, there are over 700 American companies in the Moscow Oblast alone and none seem to be running for the hills, the number is just increasing. Hmmm, me thinks the businessman on the ground knows a hell of a lot more then some punk reporter who's never in his life stepped foot in Russia but now makes himself the a-typical bookworm "expert" on all things Russian business.

[jb6]

I take what I said back about the reporter, Anna Dolgov is a regular on the Moscow Times, the oligarch owned paper. Figures, Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and Gusinsky were all past financial supporters of the paper.

[jb6]

The oil company he got control of had more debt than assets and zero income and in fact was losing money due to corrupt government management.

Come again? The infrastructure alone had a residual value of $1 billion, the oil about $50 billion in the fields, that he also got. Oh, and he never even paid the $200K, welching on that deal.

[jb6]

The only mafia connections were the likes of the Bank of New York which laundered $6 billion out of Russian under Clinton/Yeltsin. And what did our RINO congress do about it when the story finally broke? They investigated, of course, and slapped them on the wrist. Seems they had an "accounting" error and didn't realize it was $6 BILLION, half from US IMF funds, going right back to the US but to the pockets of politicians and our own mafia.

[ratemy]

So, you want to destroy every "oligarch?" or just the ones who want to bring western accounting standards to the Russian business culture?