Richest man

Chapter 11 Europe: Khodorkovsky (3)
In May 2003, Putin was said to have been confronted with a political advisory report on a possible coup attempt by the oligarchs.In response, at a government briefing in June 5, the Kremlin specially arranged for the first question to be asked about the "oligarchic revolution."Putin's answer at the time was: Russia will never "allow individual business people to influence the political life of the country for their company's interests." "Those who do not agree with this principle." Putin added that the lessons of those who have failed should be remembered. "Some people have disappeared forever, and others are far away."He was referring to Berezovsky and Gusinsky in exile.

Khodorkovsky has decided to go his own way, and in his view, alignment with the Kremlin has become something to be ridiculed.He got so close to politics that even ordinary Russians began to wonder whether he was a businessman or a politician.

But Putin is not Yeltsin. There is no clear relationship between the former KGB and the oligarchs. He even has a large number of voters because he firmly opposes the oligarchs.

Regarding Lebedev's arrest, the "Independent" stated that one person was handcuffed, and the other person felt uncomfortable.Because Lebedev is an important shareholder of the Yukos oil company controlled by Khodorkovsky, Putin still hopes that Khodorkovsky can give up his political fantasies.

What happened next pushed both strongmen onto the road of confrontation.

On July 2003, 7, Huo participated in the Independence Day celebration of the US Embassy in Russia. On July 4, Huo was summoned by the prosecution department.Then, he went to Idaho, USA to attend a business gathering with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other heavyweights present.

Many believed that Khodorkovsky's trip was his best chance to get out of the crisis in Russia, but surprisingly, after the party in the United States, Khodorkovsky returned to Moscow. "I thought he would go into exile," said one Russian tycoon, "but he was determined to be a dissident."

"He will not compromise," said Berezovsky, who is in exile in the UK. "Some people can stop expressing themselves and choose hypocrisy; others think their opinions are important. This is Khodorkov. Ski. He won't let them break him."

Huo Shi, who returned to his homeland, said that he was sure that Russia's new democracy could help and protect his rights and interests in Yukos.Not only did he not let his flag down, but he used Lebedev's arrest to openly criticize the Putin regime, believing that Putin was stepping back into the era of centralized power.Yukos has also set up outdoor billboards "We are united" all over Russia, and a special discussion on "sniping Yukos" also appeared on its company website.

In mid-October of this year, Huo Shi met with his personal lawyer.A lawyer who was present at the time recalled that Huo said he knew he would be arrested and was prepared for it.To the Western media who came to interview, Huo Shi also said the same, saying that he is still very young and very rich, and that the authorities will release him one day, after which he will continue his "war".He even joked that by cutting his hair short, he prepared himself for being caught by the authorities and sent to prison.

Until Oct. 10, in his last interview before his arrest, Huo maintained his contempt for the Putin regime. "They need to show that even the most transparent companies in this country are not safe."

It all ended in less than 5 minutes.

At about 2003:10 am on October 25, 134, Moscow time, a "Tu [-]" special plane landed at Tolmachevo Airport in Novosibirsk, Russia, and was about to refuel, but was stopped by more than a dozen vehicles with flashing police lights. Army vehicles surrounded.These heavily armed, masked Special Forces soldiers and agents in black uniforms quickly rushed into the cabin, shouting "Federal Security Service, put the gun on the ground, or open fire"!
In the third year of the 21st century when the Seven Oligarchs were in exile or silence, the last hope among them was also shattered, and Khodorkovsky became another prisoner.

After being arrested like a Hollywood movie plot, Khodorkovsky was detained in Russia's famous "Sailor's Silence" prison.The prison was built in the 50s to detain important political prisoners.Three days later, he was transferred to Moscow Prison No. 10 with better conditions.Russian prosecutors interrogated Huo on the day of his arrest and immediately took him to criminal court, asking the court to authorize the arrest.Regarding the reasons for this arrest, the procuratorate pointed out that Khodorkovsky had committed seven crimes including fraud, tax evasion, forgery of official documents, use of deception to cause property damage to others, embezzlement of property, and refusal to execute court judgments. The matter is related to the acquisition of state-owned assets 10 years ago.The Moscow court ruled that Khodorkovsky should be imprisoned, Interfax reported.The Russian General Prosecutor's Office stated that Khodorkovsky's company and its affiliates illegally seized funds and tax evasion amounted to more than 10 billion US dollars.If all charges against Fok are proven, he could be jailed for up to [-] years.

Shortly after being imprisoned, Khodorkovsky issued a statement through his lawyer: "I do not regret anything I have done, nor do I regret what happened today." Since then, people close to him He said that Huo Shi is considering running in the presidential election in March next year, even in prison.

Eight days later, Khodorkovsky, who was in prison, said he would resign as president and would no longer hold any post in the merged Yukos-Sib oil company.The outside world believes that Khodorkovsky, who was detained on suspicion of huge tax evasion and fraud and other crimes, did this to separate his case from the entire company's business in order to reduce the company's losses.Yukos formed a new board of directors to stabilize the current situation and prevent the company's normal business from being seriously affected.

On November 2003, 11, the Basmany District Court in Moscow, Russia, made a ruling rejecting Khodorkovsky's appeal for bail, which means that Khodorkovsky will be detained until at least December in accordance with the requirements of the procuratorate. 11 days.

On December 2003, 12, Khodorkovsky appeared in a Moscow court for a hearing on the extension of his detention.The Russian General Prosecutor's Office requested another three-month extension of his detention.

2004年3月19日上午，莫斯科一家地方法院再次开庭，对霍多尔科夫斯基进行了将近七个小时的庭审。最后判决将霍氏羁押候审期限定为当年5月25日。

On this day, Khodorkovsky is still dreaming about freedom.In court, he told some reporters what he thought: "I believe that I did not commit a crime. Some people have been accusing me of meddling in politics, and I don't think this accusation is justified. What Russia's current economy needs requires political support. Politics should serve economic construction. Only in this way can Russia's economy develop at a high speed. After regaining freedom, I will continue to pursue my pursuit and do more good things for the society." Khodorkovsky said with a strong tone Say.This became his last strong speech.

Ten days later, the Russian "Business Daily" published a "Letter of Repentance" written by Huo Shi in prison - "The Crisis of Russian Liberalism".In the letter, he resignedly wrote: "We should end all actions that doubt the legitimacy of the president, because it is pointless. Whether we like Vladimir Putin or not, we should realize that the Russian president is not An ordinary man, the president is the mechanism that keeps the country united and stable, and maybe God prevents us from letting that system collapse."

The oil tycoon even described his former arch-rival Putin as a "defender of liberal democracy," saying in the article: "Yes, Putin is neither a liberal nor a democrat, but he still More freedom and democracy than 70% of our country's population." This statement was seen by the global media as Khodorkovsky's first public compromise to the Kremlin since his arrest in October 10.

However, it was too late. According to the Russian judicial procedure, a general case is handed over from the procuratorate to the court, and a judgment must be made within 50-80 working days.Khodorkovsky was arrested on October 2003, 10. In late December 25, the court made a postponement of a trial procedure, which was postponed to March 2003 of the following year. On March 12, 3, the court again postponed a hearing procedure until May 25.This has already shown that the game will have no end in time. Since there are too many players involved in this political game and major national interests are involved, it seems difficult for Putin to accurately balance the forces of all parties involved in the game at the moment.

Will Putin consider releasing this "enemy" after completing the March presidential election? The answer is no, maybe he is too cautious.Putin did not release Khodorkovsky after he was sworn in in May, and remaining in prison awaiting trial was Khodorkovsky's only option.

In 2004, Khodorkovsky was obviously old, because his last capital was also in jeopardy.

2004年12月19日，俄罗斯联邦财产基金会对尤科斯公司旗下最大的子公司尤甘斯克大部分股份进行公开拍卖，起拍价预定为86亿美元。名不见经传的“贝加尔金融集团”出人意料地以93.7亿美元的价格购得了尤甘斯克公司76.79％的股份。仅仅用了5分钟，霍多尔科夫斯基曾经拥有的这个挣钱机器就成了别人的产业。

On December 12, the state-owned Russian oil company annexed Baikal, the mysterious buyer of Yukos, and thus acquired Baikal Financial Group, which had just auctioned 22% of Yugansk, a subsidiary of Yukos, and became the new owner of these shares. By.This finally brought Yugansk back under state control.After this acquisition, Yugansk merged with Gazprom and Rosneft, thus becoming one of the largest oil companies in the world.

Perhaps this is the day Putin has been waiting for.With a large number of Yukos subsidiaries being auctioned or acquired, and the government demanding that they repay the tax owed, Yukos' ultimate fate seems to be bankruptcy.

Not many people have hope for the future of Khodorkovsky, and our topic has to go back to March 2005. Khodorkovsky was recognized by the "Forbes" rich list as still having 3 billion Dollar Property - But What's the Use?

In the struggle against powerful Russia and Putin, his fate has been sealed: like all oligarchs in history, he will either go into exile, or grow old in obscurity, or wait in prison for a retrial.

The Fallen World: Russia's "Seven Oligarchs"

When it comes to rich people in Russia, the topic of oligarchs can never be avoided. It is said that when the oligarchic economy was at its peak, seven groups in Russia once controlled 85% of Russia's wealth.

In fact, Russia's oligarchs have always been a spectacle in the world economy. These "oligarchs" mainly refer to big capitalists who got rich overnight during Russia's privatization in the 20s. One day in March 90, Yeltsin secretly summoned seven financial oligarchs. They were Berezovsky, President of Union Bank, Gusinsky, President of Bridge Bank, Vinogradov, President of International Commercial Bank, and President of Capital Savings Bank. Smolensky, Alfa Bank President Friedman, Menatep Bank President Khodorkovsky, and Russian Credit Commercial Bank President Malkin.An agreement was reached: the bankers provided financial support to ensure Yeltsin's re-election; Yeltsin promised to protect the economic interests of the oligarchs.This is the later "Seven Oligarchs".

These seven people are "elites" who are quick-witted and dare to take risks. Almost all of them have graduated from colleges and are between 40 and 50 years old.These people, together with Chubais, president of the Unified Power Company, basically controlled the country's oil and gas, power, metallurgical and financial industries, and to a certain extent manipulated public opinion.

The first round of the contest between the two sides took place in 1998.This year, the irrational distribution results of Russia's privatization emerged for the first time, and a financial crisis accompanied by inflation swept across the country.Prime Minister Primakov tried to deal with these economic oligarchs and at the same time "improve state management" to limit the oligarchs' control of the regime, but was eventually deposed.In the first bout, the oligarchs prevailed.

The national victory is in the second round, and the protagonist of this round is Putin. In May 2000, a few months after Putin became president, he began to crack down on the economic oligarchs. He first attacked Gusinsky and Berezovsky, who challenged his domestic and foreign policies, to launder money, embezzle state property and defraud crime against them.The two refused to appear in court, fled abroad, and were wanted by the Russian General Prosecutor's Office.Authorities subsequently accused Potanin and other five chaebols of embezzling state property or evading taxes.

It is indeed time for the oligarchs to pay the price.As Putin said: "Some people in Russia became rich in an instant and became billionaires. This was achieved by occupying national wealth. Their wealth was bestowed by the state and given free of charge. Even they themselves admit that Their titles of billionaires are appointed by the state.” He was going to start picking off these state-appointed billionaires whom he ruled, and all the oligarchs fell in front of this famously powerful Russian political leader.Let's consume fashion like fast food, consume, consume, consume again!
(End of this chapter)