The Chelsea fans might be interested that according to tonight's latest news, Sibneft is under investigation for owing almost 750 million dollars (21 billion roubles) in unpaid taxes since 2000. Sibneft refused to comment. Investigation into Sibneft and 3 other oil companies has been ongoing since 11 November. Full article: http://www.lenta.ru/economy/2004/11/17/sibneft/ This is just to those who were saying that there is no proof that he has done anything illegal. Something is obviously not adding up. How Sibneft's failure to pay its taxes would affect Chelsea's finances remains to be seen.
You got a new account just to post this? Worst sockpuppet ever. EDIT: Incidentally, if you read the article, it makes clear that what Sibneft did was correct at the time. The government is changing the law now, since Russian law doesn't prohibit ex post facto legislation. In other words, its not "tax evasion", its underpayment of taxes by a newly invented standard.
It looks like the article has been expanded since I originally had a look at it. One might suspect that the tax law is finally beginning to approach something vaguely reasonable (apparently YUKOS is getting done for a cool 25 billion at the moment). Now, being not entirely familiar with the murky world of Russian tax "system", I gather from the article that Sibneft used tax breaks for "closed administrative-territorial entities" (whatever that means) to minimize its taxes and as Shuvalov says he will be punishing those who used "tax optimisation schemes illegally". It seems the tax authorities are not entirely convinced about Sibneft's behaviour at the time, innit? So, it seems, this is at the root of the problem, and NOT "donachisleniya", by which I presume tax additions are meant. It then goes on to quote "Kommersant"'s estimate of 1.3 billion owed for 2001 alone, including penalties and fines. Now, where would these come from?