This could mean trouble for Chevron and Shell, who'd like to snag some healthy oil fields in Russia. One problem being that the Oligarch who's been
setting up the deals, is also financing parties to run against Putin and hob-nobs with Kissinger. And now he's in custody.
To think that American's put oilmen in office and Russia is putting them in jail..?
After hitting all-time highs, the Russian market plunged 10 percent on the first day of trading after the weekend arrest of Yukos oil chief
Mikhail Khodorkovsky on fraud charges.
The head of Russia's largest oil company was detained at gunpoint at a Siberian airport Saturday and later charged on seven counts that included tax
evasion and profiting more than one billion dollars from illegal dealings.
But his case has an added political dimension: The country's richest man has funded at least three opposition parties and many analysts believe he
was being hounded by secret service agents who make up a powerful faction within the Kremlin and now have Putin's ear.
[Edited on 27-10-2003 by kukla]
