-->Country Monitor, London, vom 27.8.2007 schreibt:

Mikhail Gutseriyev, chief of seventh-largest oil producer Russneft, has fled Russia to avoid serious criminal charges. His case is reminisicent of that of Yukos founder and former ownner MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY, BUT MR. GUTSERIYEV HASN'T MEDDLED IN HIGH POLITIC, NOR DOES HE HOLD PRIME OIL ASSETS. THE FACT THAT HE IS FOLLOWING THE SAME PATH AS MR. KHODORKOVSKY suggests the authorities are taking an even more proprietorila attitude towards the oil sector.

Mikhails Gutseriyev fled Russia on August 29th., one day after a court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of tax evasion and illegal business activities. Mr Guseriyev was first charged with illegal business activities in May, and the addition of further charges put into doubt his ability to keep hold of the company (he is a major shareholder as well as being CEO). Recently he struck a deal to sell the oil producer, which with output of arount 300000 barrels/day is the 7th largest in Russia. to Kremlin friendly oligarch Oleg Deripaska for a reported US$ 9billion. It has been estimated that Mr. Guseriyev's share would be arount US$ 3 billion. However on July 31st., a court froze the shares in Russneft, thereby blocking any transaction with Mr. Deripaska's Base Element. The arrest warrant for Mr. Gutseriyev, and his glight abroad, makes it difficult to envisage any outcome othe than the seizure of his company by the state, in much the same manner as Yukos was wrested from Mr Khodorkovsky in 2005, before being handed over piecemeal to state company Rosneft.

The attack on Russneft suggests that state's boundaries are shifting further, with smaller players now within the governments purview. The fact that Russneft has few firstclass assets in seemingly irrelevant; the fact that it is a sizeable oil player alone seems sufficient to merit its appropriation. this time around, in contrast to Yukos, government supporters cannot even offer the justification that the state is stealing back assets what were stolen from it in the 1990s-Russneft onle into being on Vladimir Putin's watch.


Dieses Beispiel zeigt einmal mehr auf, dass Russland immer noch eigene Gesetzmässigkeiten in Sachen Investments and Financing' pflegt. Ganz abgesehen davon, dass Gutseriyev: der Gejagte, vermutlich schon immer davon ausgehen durfte, dass ihm die Beute, füher oder später, wieder abgetrotzt wird.

Emerald.