Russia 110111 Basic Political Developments

Icebreakers take icebound ships to open water

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/01/11/39248716.html

Jan 11, 2011 09:38 Moscow Time

In the Sea of Okhotsk, the Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers are leading two Russian icebound ships to the open water.

More than half the distance has been covered in the past 24 hours.

The caravan is travelling very slowly because of pack ice off Sakhalin coast. 5 ships at a time sent SOS signals on December 31^st.

A minor icebreaker Magadan was the first to have been sent to the rescue, but failed to break the 2- metre thick ice, so the more powerful icebreaker The Admiral Makarov joined in.

The Admiral Makarov has already led two icebound ships to the open water. A factory ship is still waiting to be released from captivity. 

The dead man found off Sakhalin believed to be from Partner schooner

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15844731&PageNum=0

11.01.2011, 06.35

VLADIVOSTOK, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - The dead man whom rescuers on an inflatable half-sunken raft 30 meters away from Sakhlain's southwest coast is believed to be from the missing fishing schooner Partner.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry department for the Sakhalin region reported on Tuesday that the raft had been found on January 10 near the village of Novosyolovo as part of a search operation to find the missing Partner fishing schooner. On January 7, the vessel sent a distress signal from the Tatar Strait (the northern part of the Sea of Japan).

The schooner sailed under the Cambodian flag and engaged in poaching in Russian territorial waters. Its crew consisted of 11-14 people. All were Russian nationals.

The discovered raft doesn’t have a single identification sign.

European Parliament pushes for sanctions against Russian officials in Khodorkovsky case

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110111/162097091.html

European Parliament deputies suggested imposing possible economic and visa sanctions against Russian officials involved in Russian ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's trial and conviction, Russian business daily Kommersant said on Tuesday.

In late December, Moscow's Khamovniki District Court sentenced Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of the Yukos oil company, and his business partner Platon Lebedev to a total of 14 years in prison in a second trial involving Yukos assets. The two men, who already spent seven years in jail for fraud and tax evasion from their 2005 trial, could remain behind bars until 2017. The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights was to discuss the verdict of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev on Monday.

The group of parliamentary deputies led by Estonian Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe deputy Kristiina Ojuland suggested imposing visa and economic sanctions for officials allegedly tied to the convictions of the two men.

Ojuland's press secretary, Joel Hirv, told Kommersant that the deputy suggested sanctions due to numerous violations in laws and human rights during the trial. Hirv said sanctions remain the only possible way to make Russian authorities obey laws, as the European Parliament representatives along with other European institutions have tried hard to convince their Russian colleagues to do so without apparent results.

Earlier Ojuland backed sanctions against Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of corporate lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a detention center in Moscow. Her proposal for sanctions against Russian officials in Khodorkovsky's case was strongly supported by her European colleagues.

Russia denies all accusations in legal and human rights violations, insisting Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been justly convicted of serious economic crimes which in the United States would be punishable by life imprisonment.

"They [European Parliament deputies] are trying to frighten the judges of our court," deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs Andrei Klimov said. "[Our] reaction is just the opposite. The politicization of the case prevents normal court proceedings."

"The selectivity of their [European Parliament deputies] decision is surprising," Klimov said.

Once Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky has been found guilty of stealing 218 million tons of oil from his own company and laundering the proceeds, worth around $100 million.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have repeatedly denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated.

Many Western countries and organizations, including the United States and the European Union, have condemned the verdict as harsh and unfair, and expressed concern over the fact that the judicial system in Russia has shown no signs of improvement despite President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge to make it just and transparent.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's lawyers have already appealed the verdict to the Khamovniki District Court.

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)

Dutch Release $1.2Bln Yukos Funds

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/dutch-release-12bln-yukos-funds/428086.html
11 January 2011

Bloomberg

The Dutch Supreme Court lifted the freeze on $1.2 billion of proceeds from the 2006 sale of a refinery by a former Dutch unit of Yukos Oil, once Russia’s largest oil producer.

Yukos International UK BV “isn’t prohibited to dispose of the proceeds,” The Hague-based court said Friday in a statement on its web site. It overturned prior rulings by the Court of Appeals and the District Court in Amsterdam.

Promneftstroi, an investment vehicle controlled by U.S. businessman Stephen Lynch, agreed to buy the legal entity that held all Yukos International shares in 2007. That transaction was later canceled by a Dutch court, so there is no legal ground for Promneftstroi’s argument that Yukos International isn’t allowed to claim the money, the Supreme Court said.

“This ruling is another positive step toward the ultimate resolution of the false ownership claims of Promneftstroi,” Bruce Misamore, Yukos’ former finance chief, said in an e-mailed statement after the ruling. “Yukos International UK BV directors are committed to ensuring that stakeholders damaged by the illegal expropriation of Russia’s most successful oil company can someday benefit from the distribution of funds commensurate to their investment.”

Then-President Vladimir Putin’s government dismantled Yukos Oil, once the country’s biggest crude-oil exporter, after imposing more than $30 billion in tax charges. State-run Rosneft became the nation’s largest oil company by acquiring most of bankrupt Yukos’ assets for $27 billion in 2006 after a series of forced auctions.

“In this legal battle, we are disadvantaged by an unprecedented public relations and lobbying campaign financed by the very funds under dispute,” Promneftstroi’s Lynch said by telephone. “This campaign has created an accepted myth that the bankruptcy of Yukos Oil arose from various political factors and not the undisputed tax schemes operated by Yukos Oil.”

Yukos International’s shares are currently held by a foundation run by former Yukos Oil executives and a number of independent persons, Barbara Rumora-Scheltema, a lawyer with the firm NautaDutilh, representing Yukos International, said by telephone Friday.

The foundation’s aim is to ensure Yukos Oil’s former shareholders get the assets that have been preserved, Rumora-Scheltema said.

The foundation won’t distribute the $1.2 billion from the sale of a Lithuanian refinery, Mazeikiu Nafta, as long as there is still a dispute over whether Promneftstroi owned Yukos Finance, Rumora-Scheltema said.

The Amsterdam Court of Appeals decided in October that the sale by a Russian administrator of Yukos Finance BV, which owned Yukos International’s equity, wasn’t legal because it didn’t fall within Yukos Oil’s Russian bankruptcy.

“We are disappointed in the decision of the Supreme Court to lift the freezing order,” Lynch said by e-mail. The ruling was “without any indication that it sought to balance the interests at stake.”

The “matter of actual ownership of Yukos Finance is the subject of continuing legal contests,” Lynch said, adding that Promneftstroi will “shortly” submit an appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court.