Attack on oil company

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

Russian authorities have arrested another top shareholder in Yukos, the country’s largest private oil company. Vasilii Shakhnovskii was accused of tax evasion, a common charge in Russia; the Kremlin often uses the country’s contradictory and impenetrable tax code to punish enemies. Since July, three other top Yukos shareholders have been charged with fraud or had their offices searched. Some Russian commentators say the Kremlin has been persecuting Yukos because it wants the company to be sold to foreign investors. Other major shareholders are getting nervous; one has already fled to Israel.