Russ Oil-Gas

27 August 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has hit out at a Swiss court's decision to lift a freeze on funds related to bankrupt Russian oil producer Yukos, branding it an unfriendly move toward the country. "We consider this decision as politically motivated. This is a move of non-respect towards our country and an attack on its sovereignty," Reuters quoted Chaika telling a news conference in Moscow today. He said his deputy would fly to Switzerland for consultations this week. Last week, Swiss judicial authorities said they had lifted a freeze on all funds related to Yukos, worth between 200 million and 300 million Swiss francs ($165.8 million to $248.8 million). The move followed a ruling by Switzerland's highest court blocking a Swiss government bid to give Russia documents linked to bank accounts held by former Yukos owners, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, and several companies. The landmark ruling by the Lausanne-based Tribunal Federal, or Supreme Court, halted Swiss co-operation with Russia in a criminal case which the five judges said seemed aimed at ousting "political rivals". The Swiss ruling concluded "that the (Russian) penal procedure in the case at hand is being manoeuvred by the powers that be with the intention to rein in the class of rich 'oligarchs' and sideline potential or declared political adversaries." Lawyers for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev welcomed the decision, noting it was the first time the top Swiss court had invoked political persecution and human rights violations as grounds for not helping foreign authorities to pursue a criminal matter. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are each serving an eight-year prison term in Siberia on charges of fraud and tax evasion. The Swiss court said the two should not have been sent to prison camps in Siberia as Russian law provided for the place of detention to be close to their home or place of trial. Earlier this month Russia sold the last big asset of Yukos, once the country's largest oil producer. State-controlled Rosneft bought assets from Yukos at a state-forced auction earlier this year.