Russian President issues statement on YUKOS
Posted: 28 October 2003
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not meet with the Russian
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and politicians over
the case against the oil company YUKOS.
“There will be no meetings, no bargaining regarding the activities
of law enforcement agencies, provided that they acted within the
framework of Russian law,” the President said, Mayak radio
reports.
Putin believes the court had reasons to arrest Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
the head of YUKOS. “There will be no generalisation, analogies,
to say nothing about precedents, regarding the results of privatisation,”
he said.
Putin also called for a stop to all the “speculation and
hysterics” over the caseand urged the government “not
to get involved in this discussion”.
“Before the court, as well as before the law, all should
be equal: a modest clerk, and a government official, even of the
highest rank — an ordinary citizen, an average entrepreneur
and a rich businessman,” Putin said. “Irrespective of
how many billions of dollars they have in their personal and corporate
accounts, all should be equal before the law.”
The President stressed the importance of solving the problem of
creating an economically effective and socially acceptable tax system.
“Otherwise, we will not teach anyone, and we will not make
them pay taxes and make payments to social funds, including pension
funds; we will not manage to change the situation with organized
crime and corruption,” Putin said.
The People’s Party of Russia also issued a statement on Monday,
saying that the Prosecutor General’s Office had brought serious
tax evasion charges against Khodorkovsky.
“We don’t fear that the investigation into the deals
of one oligarch will call into question the reforms of the 1990s.
All people-oriented parties of the country should rise to protect
the interests of the people, the government and the President from
oligarchs who went too far. They should share with the society,”
the statement said.
Vladislav Reznik, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Budget and
Tax Committee, belives Russian stocks will start rising in several
days, but the restoration of Russian shares to their previous levels
will take a longer time. Reznik also said the American currency
is unlikely to strengthen sharply.
Vladimir Katrenko, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy,
Transport and Communications, expressed hope that “after some
decline in the stocks of large Russian companies, they will rise”.
For more information see top.rbc.ru
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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