October 30, 2003

silhouette3.JPG From the desk of Jane Galt:

Holy socialism, Batman!

Russia may have just effectively re-nationalised Yukos, its largest oil-company, in the wake of its chief executive's arrest for fraud and tax evasion.

Posted by Jane Galt at October 30, 2003 10:06 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links
Comments
Posted by: Garth on October 30, 2003 10:24 AM

Don't jump to any conclusions yet. The gov't seized the shares of Yukos Universal, wholly owned by Group Minatep, led by Khordorkovsky and representing 61% of Yukos, the oil company. The gov't can do this as it tries the owners of the stake in Yukos on fraud, tax evasion, etc charges. Presumably some amount of the value of the shares would be used to pay back taxes, fines and the like and the rest returned to the owners. It is highly unlikely that the govt is really interested in renationalization though we should all recognize that the Russian Privatization program of the 1990s was seriously flawed.

Posted by: David Thomson on October 30, 2003 12:56 PM

Putin is probably stunned by the world’s outrage---and the immediate financial repercussions. I suspect that this man will be free by the middle of next week. It is the only way to stabilize the Russian financial markets. There simply will not be any further substantial outside investment until this matter is resolved.

Tax cheating is an accepted Russian practice. No, this gentleman was not arrested for hiding some of his earning. Putin is merely upset by his political support of the Russian President's foes.

Posted by: wallster on October 31, 2003 12:39 PM

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Capitalism just does not work!!!

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