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Article: Putin pursues Russia's oil oligarchs.(Vladimir Putin )
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- August 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin could not have chosen his time with greater luck, foresight or care for the Kremlin's looming confrontation with the oligarchs. Troubled by record high oil prices, all the moneymen of the world are nervously watching the shabby Meshchansky Courthouse in Moscow at the start of a controversial trial of some super-rich executives of Yukos Oil Co. on embezzlement charges that could keep them in prison for a decade. We shall witness a fight on a razor blade.
The Russian president won at the last elections this spring the domestic support he needed to end the present effective power-sharing of the Kremlin with the oligarchs. But he must retain ...