In the defining power struggle of Putin’s first presidency, Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 at gunpoint at a Siberian airfield. Things haven’t been the same in Russia since,” Misamore said in an interview. Then Mr Putin turned into a despot and stole the company back. “When I went to Russia it was to be a part of what I saw as a country going in the right direction,” said Ohio-born Bruce Misamore, the ex-finance chief of Yukos who is still seeking compensation nine years after fleeing Russia for America. The two main lawsuits, one brought by former Yukos managers at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and one by shareholders at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, could be decided this year, according to those involved.Īfter the sudden release of Khodorkovsky, plaintiffs in the cases made clear they wanted to push forward with their cases.Īllies say Khodorkovky’s imprisonment and the subsequent dismantling of his business empire were caused by his funding of Putin opponents and his public accusations about state corruption, which the Kremlin denies. Most of its assets are now owned by Russian state oil major Rosneft. Pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in December after 10 years in jail for fraud and tax evasion, Khodorkovsky, 50, has bowed out of the ring, but the ex-managers and shareholders of Yukos fight on for compensation from the Russian Federation.Ī business once worth $40 billion (24 billion pounds) that pumped two percent of the world’s oil, Yukos was broken up and nationalised after Khodorkovsky’s arrest in 2003. Freed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky attends a news conference in the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, December 22, 2013.
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