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London, November 12, 2003

Police raid Sörös office as oil billionaire is refused bail

From Clem Cecil in Moscow

Khodorkovsky

[Khodorsky] AFTER pouring billions into Russia over the past
15 years, George Sörös‘s
Open Society foundation in Moscow has been raided in what could be the latest step in the investigation against Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned oil billionaire.

Mr Khodorkovsky, the former head of
Yukos, the Russian oil giant, was denied bail yesterday. He was also denied permission to attend the closed session in
Basmanny Court, Moscow, which rejected his application.

The court ruled at the beginning of the session that it should be closed on the ground that the accused could use an open session to “establish contact with his accomplices”, who would in turn “place pressure on those taking part in the court process”.

Mr Khodorkovsky’s testimony was beamed into the courtroom via a television satellite from a small cell in Matrosskaya
Tishina, the Moscow prison where he has been incarcerated since his arrest on
October 25. He was dressed in a thick sweater, hunched against the cold of the prison. He is accused on seven counts of large-scale theft and tax evasion. Mr
Khodorkovksy is to remain in prison until
December 30.

Critics of President Putin say that he is applying Russian law selectively to remove political competition in the run-up to the Russian parliamentary and presidential elections.
Mr Khodorkovsky, who made his billions in privatisation deals in the 1990s, has financed several political parties and dropped hints that he would like to run for president.

The State
appeared to be pursuing evidence
against Mr Khodorkovsky in the forced
entry into Mr Sörös’s
foundation in Moscow. More than 40
armed men made a surprise raid on the
building in central Moscow late last
Thursday, shutting many staff in their
offices and removing all the files and
computers.

[George Soros]Apparently, the raid was ordered by the company that owns the building in order to settle a rent dispute. However, Mr Sörös (left) was rumoured to be a significant shareholder in Yukos and to have invested in its daughter companies. A source close to Mr Sörös’s business interests in Russia said: “Why would law enforcement officials seize computers and files if it was a simple real estate issue?”

The source said that authorities could have accessed “information about the structure of the Yukos’s offshore company structures,” in the files.

The raid happened a few days after Mr
Sörös criticised the arrest of
Mr Khodorkovsky in a newspaper owned by the Russian tycoon.

… on the, ahem, oligarchs
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Russian fraudster Boris Berezovsky granted asylum by Tony Blair’s government
Letter
Reuters reports that The World Jewish Congress asked Interpol not to arrest Jewish
Russian media magnate Vladimir
Gusinsky
Apr 25,

2001: Russian media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky has flown from Spain to Israel, apparently in a new bid to escape the clutches of
Moscow prosecutors
Outrage in Berlin
Conservative
German politician claims Jews are “a
Race of Perpetrators”
Outrage in New
York Billionaire
George Soros shocks Jewish elite, says
Bush, Sharon to blame for global rise in anti-Semitism
Forward:
Kremlin Targets Jewish Tycoons in War on

Critics
First
Russian International Corporate
Philanthropic
Foundation
(of Khodorkovsky and Rothschild): “I am launching the Foundation [First
Russian International Corporate
Philanthropic Foundation] in London to highlight the international nature of the Foundation’s aims and to create an infrastructure from which the next generation of Russia’s leaders will emerge.”