Russia Warns Of Retaliation For Yukos Overseas Asset Freeze

[Purveyor]

Source: Agence France-Presse

By Max Delany
8 hours ago

Moscow (AFP) - Moscow threatened Friday to retaliate against state-linked foreign firms operating in Russia after its official assets in Western Europe were frozen over legal claims by former Yukos oil company shareholders.

Russian officials said state accounts had been frozen in Belgium, and representatives of claimants from the defunct oil firm said Russian assets were also blocked in France.

The former shareholders are trying to collect some of the record $50 billion (44 billion euros) in compensation awarded to them by an arbitration court last year for the way Russia seized and dismantled the company after arresting Yukos owner and prominent Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003.

But President Vladimir Putin stressed that "Russia does not recognise the authority of this court" and vowed instead to defend against the seizures.

"We will defend our interests by the route of justice," said Putin.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-preparing-response-overseas-asset-freezes-135510128.html

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. Poor Putin.

[stevenleser]

2. Putin doesn't understand this kind of justice. He and his cronies only want to know

Who they need to pay/bribe to make this go away.

Absent that they are flummoxed.