Roman Ab.....(YA KNAW WHO) Looks like Putin is pissed with all these "oligarchs",could Roman be next? MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian state froze a controlling stake in oil giant YUKOS on Thursday in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation between the Kremlin and big business. YUKOS has been the target since early July of legal action by the Russian justice authorities. Chief Executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint at the weekend and charged on seven counts of tax evasion and massive fraud. The impounding of shares in a top private Russian company appeared to be almost without precedent since the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism in 1991. It has raised deep fears among Western businessmen of further state intervention. YUKOS said judicial authorities had frozen 44 percent of the company's chartered capital, though the shares retained voting and dividend rights. The shares belong to Khodorkovsky and his allies. No other group or alliance could match the holding to challenge for control. YUKOS's stock price, in retreat throughout the day, plunged 12 percent on the news and shares in other oil companies dropped sharply. Khodorkovsky, one of the "oligarchs" who made their fortunes in the post-Soviet sell-off of state assets, supports liberal opponents of Putin in December's parliamentary polls. Putin is seeking re-election in a separate poll next March.
it could be somewhat amusing if he was arrested, charged and sentenced, thus removing all his money from chelsea. could chelsea become the leeds of the south?
