The dubious scheme of oil deliveries to the US did not have "economic sense". In Lithuania Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky was mistaken for the "hand of Russia". The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on September 19, 2002.
On this day, on September 19, 2002, it became known about the efforts of Yukos to arrange the delivery of tradable oil to the United States. The oil empire itself, sparkling with delight, informed the market that “the first deliveries of Russian oil to the US had turned out to be economically effective". "Our calculations have shown that the oil deliveries to the United States from the Black Sea ports as comparable to their effectiveness to deliveries to Europe”, said representatives of Yukos without giving any details.
Signs of oil laundering
The efforts of the Editorial Board of the newspaper “Kommersant” to take a look at the optimistic calculations of the oilers, alas, were not crowned with success – the Oil Company Yukos “refused to make available such data”. Moreover, both analysts, and business rivals of Khodorkovsky were also skeptical about the disclosed perspectives, having seen in this Yukos scheme more oddities than benefits. Besides, the main thing that was specified – the absence of economic reasons in the ways of oil deliveries chosen by Khodorkovsky.
"The deliveries of Russian oil to the United States can be cost-effective only when they are made directly from Russian or Baltic ports using supertankers with a deadweight of more than 250 thousand tons", noted the newspaper "Kommersant”. “As far as neither Russia nor Baltic states have ports to accommodate such big tankers, Yukos for deliveries to the United States loaded in the Black Sea ports smaller tankers and than, in the Mediterranean Sea, the oil was reloaded to supertankers. "It takes a week to charge a supertanker, and each day of vessel idleness costs about 70 thousand US dollars”, said an interlocutor of this newspaper stressing that “there is no economic sense in deliveries of that kind”.
Oil traders also noted the absence of cost-efficiency in such operations and presented the established patterns of oil sales through Europe – "Russian oil extremely rare goes outside Europe, including to the United States, and the reason is "bad cost-effectiveness of such deliveries”.
(See also “Yukos’ trading of oil and oil-products in 2002”.
At that time, many raw materials oligarchs really dreamed of developing their activities in the United States with the help of the notorious “invisible hand of the market”. In fact, such fantasies could easily take place. However, as demonstrated in numerous criminal cases and court proceedings, the decisions of Yukos too often were characterized by the “absence of economic sense” both for the company itself and for its numerous “subsidiaries” – to be more precise – for its stockholders. Well, except for the “main shareholders”, namely Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, Nevzlin, Brudno, Dubov, Shakhnovsky.
The secret is simple: “the absence of economic sense“ in deals is one of the most well-known signs of machinations and laundering of money which are been funneled out of the country and put in pockets and offshores.
An extract from the verdict of the Moscow Khamovnichesky Court from December 27, 2010, relating to the case No1-23/10 with regard to the defendants Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev (pp. 62-63):
“Therefore, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, and members of the organized group committed theft in 2002 by way of appropriating the oil belonging to JSC “Samaraneftegaz”, JSC “Yuganskneftegaz” and JSC “Tomskneft” VNK to the number of 67 817 575 tons worth of 273 056 535 000.00 rubles. Part of the stolen pecuniary assets was spent on the financing of enterprises and entities providing further production of oil, i.e. for the creation of conditions for further embezzlement, and the members themselves of this organized group received 143 284 038 733.00 rubles”.
Business on Russophobia – “new oil” for Lithuania
On the same day, on September 19, 2002, the bullhorn of the American propaganda, and nowadays the foreign agent called “The Voice of America”, included in its press review an article from the newspaper “The New York Times” which reported that “the Russian company Yukos acquired the controlling block of shares of the Lithuanian largest Oil company. In Lithuania, this deal awakens not the most pleasant historical associations. They saw in Khodorkovsky “the hand of Moscow” and started to recall all their problems – real, fictional, artificially, and very skillfully created – based on Antisovetism and Russophobia.
“On September 19, 2002, “Williams International”, the Oklahoma conglomerate that owns 27 per cent of “Mazeikiu Nafta’s” stock and exclusive management rights, will turn over the keys to Yukos Petroleum of Moscow, Russia’s second-largest oil producer”, reported the newspaper “The New York Times” in its article entitled “Is Big Brother Being Replaced by Big Oil Company?”
"The $85 million transactions gives Yukos 54 per cent of the refinery's shares and control of a business that not only dominates Lithuanian's gasoline supply, but also contributes a tenth of its gross domestic product".
“Yukos, of course, is a company, not an evil empire. And those who remember 1991 say they want to believe Russia has changed. Still, they fret that what Soviet troops failed to attain with guns, Russian companies are poised to achieve by dollars”.
“Who knows what will be after 10 or 15 years? Who knows with Russia?” asked Andrius Kubilius, the conservative leader in Parliament who, as prime minister in 1999, backed “Williams International” (USA) purchase of a stake in Mazeikiu Nafta. “People are starting to worry”, reported “The New York Times”.
In a nutshell, the worried Lithuanians in those days saw in Khodorkovsky “a Big Brother”. But, as time has demonstrated, he simply has turned out to be a big financial swindler. And in such a format he doesn’t worry any Lithuanian conservatives. On the contrary, today, on the vast expanses of Lithuania, flourishes one of the centers that "make business on Russophobia”.
(See also “Lithuanian family contract “Future of Russia”.
One of the participants of Anti-Russian programs is the mentioned above Andrius Kubilius who fights against Russian from the position of a member of the European Parliament. And the sponsor of this hate program is the tax trickster Mikhail Khodorkovsky which is hiding from accusations of complicity in the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, who was killed at the behest of the Yukos management”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
We remind that later on, in the course of the bankruptcy procedure, the fugitive stockholders of Yukos sold with a scandal their portfolio of shares of “Mazeikiu Nafta”.
“See also the previous article “On this day, Khodorkovsky suffered an electoral defeat”. The tax swindler from London calls people on the barricades. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on September 18, 2016.
