I know most Chelsea fans don't care, but I keep following the money trail. Today it is being reported that Sibneft will not be allowed to bid on lucrative natural resources being auctioned off by the Russian government. Putin has made up a new rule that companies must have at least 51% Russian ownership to bid. This also cuts out Alfa bank who have had a lot to do with the Yukos affair. Putin seems to be squeezing his old buddy RA a little bit here. http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5402103&startrow=1&date=2005-02-11&do_alert=0
Here is a different version from Kommersant. There is a link between Kommersant and Abramovich, but off the top of my head I can't remember it. Kommersant usually has a bit of a Western slant to its reporting. That is, it tends to look at moves by the Russian government from the standpoint of how it will impact additional investment in Russia from Western companies. Freezing BP, Exxon, and all other major Western companies from investing in Russia, obviously isn't going to boost the Russian economy. Moscow is obviously hoping that this move will force these companies to register taxable subsidaries in Russia. One problem: Mikael Khodorokovsky is still in jail. http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=546458
Or perhaps a different company that RA or RA and russian partners own 51%+ may have success in the bidding process, though he seems to be interested in moving his money to more secure western based interests.