Russia Freezes Assets of Jailed Oil Tycoon's Rights Group - New York Times

By C. J. CHIVERS

MOSCOW, March 17 — The bank accounts of a foundation led by the imprisoned Russian businessman, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, were frozen by court order today, the foundation and its bank said, a move that strongly suggests the organization is about to be shut down by the Russian government.

The foundation, Open Russia, immediately announced that it was forced to suspend its activities promoting civil society, and accused Russia of extending its crackdown on nongovernment organizations.

"It seems that they are trying to stop all of our activities because, of course, without money we can do nothing," said Irina Yasina, the vice chairman of the foundation's board.

The court action follows a general crackdown in Russia on nongovernment organizations that receive foreign funding, all of which will be subject next month to a law signed in January restricting their activities.

Although Open Russia is a domestic group, the new provisions had seemed tailored to include it, as a clause in the law extends the restrictions to organizations founded by citizens convicted of crimes.

Mr. Khodorkovsky, the founder of the Yukos oil company, started Open Russia in 2001. Once Russia's wealthiest man, he was convicted of fraud and others charges last year, and is serving an eight-year prison term in Siberia. He and his supporters claim the charges against him were a retaliation contrived by the Kremlin as punishment for his political activities.

Open Russia, which claims to be the country's largest foundation, has supported human rights and political freedoms in Russia, in part by providing grants to partner organizations throughout the country. It had planned an annual budget of $11 million this year and maintained its accounts at the Trast national bank, Ms. Yasina said.

Its activities have been the subject of intense government interest, including a raid on its offices here last fall, and at least five tax inspections last year, Ms. Yasina said. Today much of the suspense about Russia's intentions ended.

A spokesman for Trast, Dmitry V. Chukseyev, said that an official from the General Prosecutor's office arrived in the morning with a court order stipulating that the accounts had been frozen "in relation to a criminal matter against Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and other unidentified people."

The order, Mr. Chukseyev said, "immobilizes any movements of money" without the prosecutors' approval. It did not make clear the nature of the criminal activity, Mr. Chukseyev said. Russia's General Prosecutor's office made no public statement about the case.

Mr. Khodorkovsky remains the chairman of the board of Open Russia. The court order's mention of Lebedev referred to Platon Lebedev, Mr. Khodorkovsky's business associate, with whom he was convicted.

Mr. Yasina said the accounts contained several million dollars, and the assets were frozen on a day that Open Russia had planned to distribute funds to organizations it helps underwrite.

She excoriated the prosecutor for moving against the foundation, saying that it was another example of Russia backsliding on human rights and civil society at a time when it holds the rotating chairmanship of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

The court order also arrived on the same day that Mr. Khodorkovsky's supporters said he had been sentenced to serve a week in a punitive cell because he had been drinking tea outside an approved prison area. Russia's prison service could not be reached by telephone this evening.

The action against the foundation were unexpected but not entirely surprising. Almost all aspects of Mr. Khodorkosvky's business and public activities have faced government pressure since his arrest in 2003.

His oil company is in ruins, after being drained of assets by enormous tax judgments against it and having its core business auctioned off by the Russian authorities. Mr. Khodorkovsky himself still has several years to serve on his prison term.

Ms. Yasina said the events today signaled to her that Open Russia, like Yukos, would not survive in Russia.

"Now it is absolutely clear," she said. "I had some hope, even today in the morning. Now I understand that we are stopped."

The New York Times, 3.17.2006