NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2003

Khodorkovsky was jailed Saturday on charges of tax evasion, fraud and forgery. Many perceive the four-month investigation into Yukos oil and his other companies as an attack organized by some of President Vladimir Putin's associates to avenge the tycoon's political activities, including funding of opposition parties in the run-up to the Dec. 7 parliamentary elections.

"Yesterday the situation was tense, but there is no need to panic. We have to take all measures to stabilize and restore the market," Kasyanov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"Everyone, in his own position, should make efforts to restore the markets," he said without elaborating.

Also Tuesday, a Moscow court granted a request by prosecutors to keep a close Khodorkovsky associate, Platon Lebedev, in jail for an additional two months to allow them time to build their case, Interfax reported. Lebedev had been scheduled to be released Thursday but now can be held until Dec. 30.

Lebedev, a top Yukos shareholder and board chairman of Khodorkovsky's Menatep Group, was detained in July on charges of stealing state assets during the 1994 privatization of a fertilizer plant.

Khodorkovsky, whose fortune was estimated at $8 billion by Forbes magazine, is also in pretrial detention in Moscow's grim Matrosskaya Tishina jail. According to Russian law, suspects can be jailed for two months before trial, but a court must approve any extension of the term.

Putin on Tuesday defended the prosecutors' decision to arrest Khodorkovsky, but said there was no basis for fears that the government aimed to redistribute the state property that was privatized after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Yukos, which this month completed arrangements to form what would be the world's fourth-largest oil company by merging with Russia's Sibneft, wields a large influence on Russian markets. By midday Tuesday, Yukos stock had regained 5 percent after plummeting 15 percent the previous day.

© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Editor's note:
Find out Russia’s secret strategy: Click here now

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Russia