"Indirect" henchman of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. "A thin moral substance" and the anti-Russian lobbyism of "Menatep". The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 21, 2003.
On this day 20 years ago, on November 21, 2003, the network public read the maxims of Leonid Nevzlin – "the talented PR-specialist" shared with "network visitors" his evaluations of the situation, to which "the organized group of shareholders" had driven "the most transparent" oil company.
It's worth noting that at the very moment of that direct line the investigation did not take any public actions with regard to Nevzlin, as the work was in full swing pertaining to processing of the information which had been acquired in the course of the investigative actions – the data file on tax and financial parts of the Yukos criminal activity was, as is known, huge. The murderous part of Yukos "transparency" was also being studied – from killers-executors and intermediaries, the investigation, step by step, moved directly to the masterminds of attempted murders and murders.
Against this backdrop, a year after the killing of Sergei and Olga Gorin, "cleaned" in the interests of Yukos on November 20, 2002, on the website of the adjutant media outlet "Gazeta.ru" questions were gathered, and the escaped to Israel Leonid Nevzlin was presented to the public.
"I HAVE INDIRECT RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMPANY YUKOS”
In his public interview, Leonid Nevzlin narrated about things that he would have hardly said during an interrogation to investigators dealing with the crimes committed at the behest of Pichugin and Nevzlin. For instance, Nevzlin said that he had known Mikhail Khodorkovsky for more than 15 years. For a long time, they had been together, they "had been friends and had worked together". "I have learned to recalibrate my actions with his attitude", said Nevzlin.
After the arrest of Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin, by force of circumstances, decided to keep by himself the "informal leadership". "According to the existing plan to defend the property, the nominal leadership is preserved", said Nevzlin. "As to informal leadership, I think, that it is, still, assigned to me, at least, thanks to that fact that it has been so for many years. I had been the closest man to Mikhail Borisovich, people trust me. And I trust them".
At the same time, Nevzlin, being aware of the company's problems, distanced himself from it. "To the company Yukos I have a very indirect relationship", he said. Thus, the influence of Nevzlin on Khodorkovsky existed, as well as the other way round, For instance, in the context of the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk, such a combination, confirmed by Nevzlin, looks a lot more interesting. Apparently, the investigation has found additional evidence and accused Khodorkovsky also of the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk.
"KHODORKOVSKY DID NOT DEAL WITH POLITICS AND WAS NOT GOING TO”
Apart from that, during that online interview with Nevzlin, it became clear that Khodorkovsky had nothing to do with politics. "Khodorkovsky was not engaged in politics and was not going to be engaged. He did not enter into trade relations with anyone. After the arrests of Pichugin and Lebedev, after the accusation of the company, he took a position that is not tradable. He doesn't consider himself guilty in anything and he doesn't think that he has to leave the country if he has been squeezed out of it. He wants that all claims would be openly presented to him and submitted to the public opinion", said later, in August 2008, Nevzlin, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his instructions to Pichugin as to “neutralize” people.
EVERYTHING AS KHODORKOVSKY WANTED
As chance would have it, over time everything happened as Khodorkovsky had wanted, in accordance with his "untraded" position at that, pronounced by Nevzlin.
The claims gathered in hundreds of files of the criminal cases openly and by the due process of law were presented to public scrutiny. And those part of the Russian and, by the way, not only Russian, society capable to think independently was not that much at variance with those made by the courts at the end of two cases. Fraud, embezzlement, and tax crimes imputed to Khodorkovsky were substantiated.
Apart from that, the two guilty verdicts with insignificant corrections like shortening of terms, were “stood up” in all instances. And all propaganda actions with narratives about "the intransigent Khodorkovsky's pivot" were of no help, as of no help were also efforts to trade "the untraded" position, which, in the end, led Khodorkovsky to a sect that lives on anti-Russian operations, where he nowadays attend.
"THIN MORAL SUBSTANCE”
Moreover, Nevzlin "didn't commit a sin", saying "I will never allow myself to work against the country where I was born, where I grew up and had lived till I was 44 full years. That is why we are talking about very thin for me moral substance. I can allow myself to comment on some or other actions towards the company or the group and, in particular, towards Khodorkovsky. Which I do. But I cannot allow myself to enter the space of statements about Russia turning into a non-legal totalitarian state", said Nevzlin with an air of finality in 2003.
PAID FIGHTERS FOR THE “MENATEP” CAUSE
After that, the money from structures connected with the "main Yukos shareholders" started to flow to the United States. So, for instance, in 2003, in December, the newspaper "The Washington Post" which had once allocated a special place to the "robber baron" Khodorkovsky and to "tied with the criminal world "Menatep", pointed out that Stuart E. Eizenstat, a partner of the law firm "Covington & Burling" had registered for lobbying for the interests of "Menatep".
Their efforts the lobbyists directed at "providing support from the part of the United States government of the rule of law in Russia, in particular, in connection with actions undertaken by the Russian authorities against the leaders of the group "Menatep" and Yukos. This is a standard form of a statement that, and in the case of Yukos and Khodorkovsky, it is covering the aggressive foreign resistance of the Russian investigation as well as pressure on courts with the help of purchased speeches from high international tribunes and various anti-Russian resolutions.
It's no wonder that Stuart E. Eizenstat, that held high positions in the United States when his "friend Bill" Clinton was president, "is a member of the international consulting committee, which had been created by the group "Menatep" in 2003. As the newspaper pointed out, members of this council were also Margery Kraus, the general manager of the firm "APCO Worldwide", Otto Lambsdorf, a former member of the German Bundestag, and Dudley Fishburn, a former member of the British Parliament.
"In other words, "Menatep" with the participation of Nevzlin, who at that time didn't want to be reputed as a blatant Russophobe, simply hired those who would cry about "the illegal totalitarian state" on every corner, thus substituting with anti-Russian attacks the essence of the crimes committed by Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky", noted the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article "On this day, Nevzlin was neutralizing witnesses". In November, "Gorin said if Pichugin would not settle this question, he would go for a meeting with Nevzlin". The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 20, 2002.
