Success of the oil company Yukos against Russia at the Hague’s arbitration court

“The Russian side, those agencies which represent Russia in this process, will use all available legal possibilities to defend its position without any doubt,” said Lavrov. The panel of judges considered that Russian officials had manipulated the legal system to bankrupt Yukos. “The primary objective of the Russian Federation was not to collect taxes but rather to bankrupt Yukos and appropriate its valuable assets.” the court said. This decision will affect Russia more because “it could become the basis for arguments for revising Russia’s ratings by international rating agencies,” appreciated Credit Suisse economist Aleksei Pogorelov. A second decision is expected from The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where Yukos argued that Yukos was unlawfully deprived of its possessions by the imposition of bogus taxes. The claimed funds will be shared among the shareholders and the biggest part’s owner (around 70 percent) is the Russian-born Leonid Nevzlin, a business partner who had fled to Israel to avoid prosecution.