#10 - JRL 7249
pravda.ru
July 15, 2003
Yukos to be Liquidated?
The USA wants the scandal connected with the company of Mikhail Khodorkovsky to take its normal course

Last Friday head of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky told journalists everything he could about the arrest of the Menatep bank president Platon Lebedev, the check-ups and searches in Yukos; about the authority and oligarchs in Russia in general. Having told the above mentioned facts, Khodorkovsky left for the USA together with his family. The official version of the departure is participation of the Russian oligarch in a conference of world multi-millionaires in Sun Valley (Idaho), where Khodorkovsky is to be the only Russian oligarch. However, this version sounds unconvincing if we take into consideration the fact that previously Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent a month in the USA participating in different negotiations; that he warned US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow of all prospective measures the Russian authorities would take with respect to the oil company and then took his family out of the country.

It is an open secret that success of Yukos and its authority on the international scene was mostly achieved thanks to some definite circles in the USA. In this connection, it is highly likely that the scandal about Yukos, its shareholders and companies related to it are some kind of payment of the debt. If so, then the situation about the company, first of all the assurance of the RF Prosecutor's Office that everything is done in accordance with the legislation (to be more exact, that it is that kind of governmental necessity when any violation of the legislation is automatically justified) is seen in a different light.

It is not ruled out that Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent the previous month in the USA trying to postpone payment of his "debt" to the USA, but failed. For some unknown reasons, American "friends" of Khodorkovsky want the situation about Yukos to take its own course. Then, it looks that Kodorkovsky was set up on purpose, and the oligarch had to reconcile himself to this fact.

As is became known yesterday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was going to get back to Russia on July 15 in the evening. His family will stay in the USA. Although it is quite obvious that it would be better for him to stay in the USA longer, Khodorkovsky plans to get back to Russia where he still has many urgent problems to settle.

While the Yukos president was communicating with world multi-millionaires in the USA, investigators of the Russian Prosecutor's Office proceeded with searches in the offices of Yukos and other companies related to it. A search in the Yukos archives started on Friday and finished on Saturday early in the morning. The Prosecutor-s Office promised that first results of examination of the withdrawn documents would be reported on Monday.

Yukos attorneys constantly tell journalists that they will appeal to court against actions of the investigators. However, it seems that the General Office of Public Prosecutor isn't anxious about the complaints of the Yukos attorneys and about Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's dissatisfaction with "excessive measures" applied to the oil company. It is not ruled out that during the searches in Yukos offices the investigators managed to find documents that may make the situation in the company even more complicated.

For the time being, Yukos staffers give no interviews to journalists. The company reported on Monday that if more arrests followed, an "emergency" management system would be introduced there. This means that when a top manager is arrested, a reserve one will immediately take his position. At that, if Yukos president Mikhail Khodorkovsky won't be able to fulfill his duties (Yukos doesn-t rule out that he may be detained as soon as he gets back from the USA), financial director of the company, American Bruce Misamore will take his position.

It is not ruled out that some sources in the USA expect that the Prosecutor's Office will then arrest the American citizen as well. It may happen so that the investigators discovered some problems while searching Yukos offices answers to which they may get from Misamore only.

Dmitry Slobodanuk