Major shareholders in Russia's embattled Yukos oil giant offered the government control of the company yesterday in return for the freedom of the firm's former chief executive, Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and top official Mr Platon Lebedev, who are in jail charged with tax evasion and fraud. Daniel McLaughlin reports from Moscow
The offer was made by Mr Leonid Nevzlin, one of the six main shareholders in Yukos, all of whom are either in prison, outside Russia and accused of economic crimes or, in the case of one, already sentenced to a one-year suspended jail term for tax evasion.
"We are ready to do everything to obtain the freedom of our friends. If we get guarantees that they will be released, we will hand over our shares," Mr Nevzlin said. "Life and liberty are more valuable than shares."
Mr Nevzlin, who owns the second-largest stake in Yukos after Mr Khodorkovsky, told Ekho Moskvy radio that part of the deal would be "a halt to the prosecution" of all the accused shareholders. Their stock is thought to be worth almost $15 billion (€11.76 billion), with Yukos valued at about $33 billion.
Mr Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, was seized at gunpoint on his private jet last October, almost four months after Mr Lebedev's arrest marked the start of a swingeing legal onslaught against Yukos.
Mr Khodorkovsky's supporters say the Kremlin is orchestrating the crackdown to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin, stop him financing opposition parties and slash a fortune that made him a potentially fearsome political enemy.
A merger between Yukos and Sibneft - the firm controlled by Chelsea football club owner Mr Roman Abramovich - unravelled after Mr Khodorkovsky's arrest and failed attempts by Mr Abramovich to win management control of the merged company, which would have been the world's fourth-largest oil producer.
Mr Nevzlin, who has been in Israel since the crackdown on Yukos began, said his offer was the Kremlin's last chance to come to a compromise with the firm's owners.
