Death of an Oil Company

Moscow

Yukos, once Russia’s largest private company, dissolved in bankruptcy this week. Creditors said the company was worth $18 billion but owed half a billion more than that; Yukos’ lawyers protested that the firm’s assets actually totaled $37 billion, but their testimony was disregarded. Years of questionable legal proceedings against the oil company left it with billions of dollars of tax bills and fines and sent the firm’s chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to a labor camp on fraud charges. Most analysts believe the Kremlin ordered the harassment of Yukos in order to restore state control of the oil industry and to punish Khodorkovsky for his outspoken opposition to President Vladimir Putin.