[CTRL] Fwd: [cia-drugs] Yukos oil giant drops out of Russian politics amid confrontation with Putin

[Kris Millegan]

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-Caveat Lector-   ----- Original Message ----- From: vera To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 9:49 PM Subject: [A_Political_Debate_] Yukos oil giant drops out of Russian politics amid confrontation with Putin What a piece of crap!   Posted: 03 April 2004 0211 hrs Yukos oil giiant drops out of Russian politics amid confrontation with Putin MOSCOW : A key owner of Russia's largest oil company Yukos bowed to intense Kremlin pressure and withdrew his support of a top liberal lawmaker who is vying to forge a democratic opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Billionaire Leonid Nevzlin -- the second largest Yukos shareholder -- said in a newspaper interview that he would no longer finance Irina Khakamada, who is trying to build an opposition force after placing a surprising fourth in the March 14 presidential elections. Nevzlin fled to Israel last year to avoid prosecution on fraud charges and then attempted to finance a political movement against Putin. He ended up backing Khakamada's campaign -- a pro-business candidate who hopes to rejuvenate the liberal movement ahead of 2007 parliamentary elections and the following year's presidential vote. Khakamada recently told AFP that she relied heavily on Nevzlin's support but understood that Kremlin pressure may force some tycoons to play it safe and refuse to finance the opposition. And Nevzlin changed his tune on Russian politics Friday -- only days after the jailed former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky dropped a bombshell by putting his name to an article that praised Putin and condemned the liberal opposition for losing its way. Nevzlin told the Izvestia daily that he would "like to apologize before everyone who expected more from me -- if I failed their expectations. "Most of all, of course, I mean Irina Khakamada," Nevzlin said in the interview, which he described as his last to the Russian press. Khakamada's office said it "understood why this decision was reached". "Many people want to help us but few want to do it in the open. Everyone fears for themselves and their business," Khakamada's former campaign manager Marina Litvinovich told Moscow Echo radio. Meanwhile analysts said Nevzlin's comments confirmed that top Yukos managers are trying to strike a deal with the Kremlin as their top managers go to court and face lengthy jail terms. "It looks like Khodorkovsky has reached an agreement with the Kremlin and is telling all of his underlings to follow suit," said political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky. Nevzlin said that "without any doubt, I plan to leave the political scene. I will try to make sure that this is my last interview for some time." Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man and top Yukos shareh! older, was arrested on October 25 on charges of massive fraud and tax evasion in what observers interpreted as a crackdown against the tycoon's political opposition to Putin. All of Yukos' core six shareholders came under criminal inquiry and three fled abroad. Two top Yukos shareholders, including Khodorkovsky, are in prison and one was convicted of tax fraud but released with a one-year suspended sentence. Yukos has since seen its merger with Sibneft -- a deal creating the world's fourth largest energy producer -- fall apart under what many analysts saw as pressure from the Kremlin. Khodorkovsky made a statement though his lawyers Friday broadcast on Russia's NTV television that was reminiscent of a Soviet-era political prisoner's confession. "We cannot make a step forward without without analysing our mistakes," Khodorkovsky said in the statement read on NTV television. He said he changed his position about Putin's rule because a poll showed t! hat "90 percent of the people think that my money is illegitimate. "I do not want to be treated like shit because of money -- I never tried to hold on to it," the lawyer quoted Khodorkovsky as saying. And Nevzlin appeared to follow in his steps Friday by saying that Khodorkovsky's article meant that Yukos core shareholders "had to leave the political stage." Analysts said the interviews by Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin marked the end of the youthful shareholders' political -- and possibly even business -- ambitions. The campaign against Yukos is widely believe to be waged by a Kremlin clan of former secret service agents who failed to prosper in the tumultuous years of post-Soviet privatization and are now cracking down on the elite that did. - AFP Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org OM Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/   To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om

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