Khodorkovsky names alleged YUKOS attacker

MOSCOW — In his latest interview with the newspaper Vedomosti, published on Thursday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chief of oil company YUKOS, named an alleged man behind the attack on Russia’s one time leading oil producer. The jailed oligarch claimed that the attack had been orchestrated by Igor Sechin, deputy chief-of-staff to president Putin.

Khodorkovsky denied allegations from his business partner Leonid Nevzlin that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was also partly responsible for the YUKOS demise. “On Leonid’s part, this was rather an emotional reaction. Roma Abramovich, to put it mildly, is not the Apostle Peter. But it was Igor Sechin who organized the whole thing. And Sechin is one of Abramovich’s rivals in the struggle for influence on Putin,” the imprisoned businessman told RBC.

Commenting on the court verdict on his case, Khodorkovsky said he had been told back in mid-April that he would get the maximum punishment. But at the same time, he hopes to be released in three or four years’ time. “I am convinced that the Supreme Court of Russia will not only mitigate the sentence but that it would be overturned. And up till then, I will remain behind bars,” he told the newspaper.

Asked whether other oligarchs could face the same fate, Khodorkovsky said he did not think so. “For Putin, the YUKOS affair was enough, and for his allies it was Yuganskneftegaz and other assets of the looted company. The authorities do not have enough resources, energy and conviction to attack another national corporation. The Kremlin itself now admits selective application of law in the YUKOS case, and offers business some kind of non-aggression pact, but trust between the government and businessmen, as I see it from behind bars, has been lost. And no pacts will help until there is a change in power and decisive steps made by big business towards society. In particular, they should initiate the legitimization of privatization,” Khodorkovsky said.

“Fight for large property will continue in our country until privatization is legitimized,” he added. “Half-privatized” courts, internal affairs agencies and prosecutors will be involved in this process, the jailed businessman believes. “I would not bet that none of the so-called oligarchs will be jailed or killed in the foreseeable future,” he told Vedomosti.

“The Kremlin is not the only player. Those who accept the existing rules of the game will have to play by them, and they can become victims at any point. There’s no individual insurance against this,” Khodorkovsky concluded.

(The Russia Journal, 8.4.2005)