Russian Govt seizes controlling stake in Yukos Oil...

breaking news on CNN Int'l. Looking for link.

when he visited there a few weeks back.

... apparently he saw his own soul. Or the lack of one, that is.

Moscow, Oct 26 - The spectacular arrest of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorovsky at a Siberian airport and subsequent arraignment before a Moscow magistrate on fraud charges was termed a politically motivated act without base on Sunday by his oil company.

In a statement, the company Yukos said the criminal investigation of Khodorovsky was "absurd", and instigated because the tycoon had switched his allegiance and support to the political opposition.

Khodorovsky, a 40-year-old billionaire often called the richest man in Russia, was arrested Saturday when security-service agents swarmed aboard his private plane during a refueling stop at Novosibirsk airport.

He was bundled onto a plane and flown to Moscow where he was arraigned that afternoon on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=191151&n=24

I'm reminded of, of all things, the words of Gandalf the White: "The board is set; the pieces are moving."

Russian authorities have frozen a controlling packet of shares in national oil giant Yukos, the company has said. The action came days after the authorities stepped up investigations into the firm by arresting chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky on fraud and tax evasion charges. "A controlling stake of 61%... has been seized, although these shares still retain voting and dividend rights," Reuters quoted a Yukos spokesman as saying. A Yukos spokesperson confirmed to BBC News Online that the share seizure had taken place but declined to give details.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on Thursday meeting Moscow investment bankers in an attempt to calm market nerves surrounding the Yukos affair. But the arrest of Mr Khodorkovsky continues to hit the Russian stock market, with up to 20% losses on the MICEX and RTS exchanges this week. The case against Mr Khodorkovsky, one of Russia's richest and most powerful individuals, is widely seen as political and Mr Putin faces questions from anxious businessmen about the Kremlin's attitude to Russia's rising class of the independently wealthy. Mr Khodorkovsky has funded political parties critical of Mr Putin in the run-up to parliamentary elections in December.

According to a report in Russia's Vedomosti newspaper, Mr Putin will be seeking to "send a positive signal to participants in the market" in the meeting, which had been arranged before the Khodorkovsky arrest. "In the last few days bad news has weighed heavily on the market," Vedomosti reported one participant in the meeting as saying. "But only representatives of foreign companies will be able to raise the political questions." Mr Putin has been well regarded by investors as a source of stability and guarantor of economic reform, but Yukos is seen as a flagship moderniser among Russian blue chips.

The company has announced a record dividend payment of $2bn, one of the largest in Russian corporate history and ahead of market expectations. Khodorkovsky is in line for a $730m dividend from his Yukos shares. Yukos directors have issued a statement standing firmly behind Mr Khodorkovsky. "The board... declares its full support and belief in the management of the company and states its certainty that a fair and open court hearing will find the arrest of Mr Khodorkovsky illegal and all accsuations against him groundless," the statement says. But Mr Putin in his only public comments on the arrest has insisted the case against Yukos is a judicial matter and part of a general fight against corruption. Mr Khodorkovsky was a leading figure among the young business elite - the so-called "oligarchs" - which gained power and influence through murky privatisations in the 1990s. The prospect of a widescale purge of that generation would leave few of Russia's new millionaires unperturbed. Other leading Yukos executives are under investigation or behind bars in a concerted campaign against the company that began earlier this year. That campaign was stepped up on Wednesday when prosecutors sought to lift immunity protecting Vasily Shakhnovsky, a major Yukos shareholder who was recently elected to Russia's upper house of parliament. In a sign of widening political repurcussions from the battle, reports have spread of the resignation of Alexander Voloshin, Mr Putin's chief of staff and a lynchpin in the Kremlin's handling of its backers in big business.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3227447.stm

attempt on Putin about two weeks ago.

I would bet a million bucks these two events are connected. Either they were going to kill Putin because he was going to take over this company, or Putin's taking over this company because he discovered they were trying to kill him.

Russian Courts Seize Control of Oil Giant

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian judicial authorities seized control of oil giant YUKOS on Thursday in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation between the Kremlin and big business. YUKOS has been the target since early July of legal action by the Russian justice authorities. Chief Executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint at the weekend and charged on seven counts of tax evasion and massive fraud.
The impounding of shares in a top private Russian company appeared to be almost without precedent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

"I can confirm that a controlling stake of 61 percent of shares has been seized, although these shares still retain voting and dividend rights," YUKOS spokesman Alexander Shadrin said. The Russian prosecutors' office confirmed the seizure. The shares belong to Khodorkovsky and his allies. YUKOS's stock price, in retreat throughout the day, plunged on the news and shares in other oil companies dropped sharply. YUKOS earlier in the day offered shareholders a $2 billion dividend in a bid to steady the beleaguered company.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BP31GF1C4NUUUCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3724338

Khodorkovsky was going to sell
YukosSibneft to XOM.

That's when the SHTF.

Also remember Oct 17'03
when just after IDF strike on
Syria Russia adopted
1st strike doctrine against percieved
interests.
Russian 1stline nuclear-Sunburn
Supersonic Mach2.2, 60' flight altitude
in Syria

happened midOctober

Same for BP
The Real CoalitionProvisional Authority

Peak Oil is here

then chimpy should be credited with resurrecting the damn thing.

we've (meaning george) been played for fools. this type of a move by Putin is an open declaration that he is moving back to the totalitarian mindset of the USSR.

this is not good.

...powerful oil company. FDR said that fascism was when private corporations were bigger than the government and made all the decisions.

If PDVSA is a wonderful tool in Venezueal for helping Chavez build schools and buy milk for the poor, what's wrong with Russia controlling Yukos and using the proceeds to build up the Russian middle class?

...and any U.S. leverage. Wonder where this leaves the deal with Exxon?

It was said that the people at Yukos were working through various channels and purchasing media vehicles to oppose Putin. I'm guessing this was encouraged secretly by certain corporate entities in the U.S.

Here's a story from Oct. 6 showing Putin wanting to have a say in the Yukos/Exxon deal:

Financial News
Reuters

UPDATE - Putin wants consultations on any YUKOS deal with Exxon
Monday October 6, 9:45 am ET
By Julie Tolkacheva


MOSCOW, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Russian oil major YUKOS (YUKO.RTS) was talking to Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM - News) about selling a big portion of its stock to the United States oil giant, the Kremlin said on Monday.

The Kremlin published the full text of an interview given by Putin to the New York Times on its Web site (www.kremlin.ru) in which Putin also signalled that talks with the government would be a necessary prerequisite for any deal.

"It is above all a company matter, but, of course, this could possibly be a very large deal. I think it would be right if preliminary consultations with the Russian government are held," Putin said.

It was the first official confirmation that negotiations between the two firms over a possible share deal, which have been rumoured for weeks, were in fact taking place.

Exxon Mobil is reported to be interested in buying up to 40 percent of YUKOS, which completed a merger last week with its smaller rival Sibneft (SIBN.RTS).

Putin's remarks followed police raids on Friday on a private school for orphans sponsored by YUKOS, in which an old computer server was seized, and on a business centre owned by the company.

YUKOS's share price fell sharply on Friday on news of the raids but on Monday was trading 2.24 percent up at $15.54.

Friday's searches were the latest in a series of police raids on YUKOS premises following the arrest in July of Platon Lebedev, a company shareholder and close busineess associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive of YUKOS and Russia's richest man.

The investigation is seen as an attempt by high-ranking government officials in Putin's circle to bring the independent minded Khodorkovsky to heel..>> MORE

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031006/energy_yukos_3.html