The Yukos Money Laundering Case: A Never-Ending Story

The Yukos case has unveiled the possible dangers of money laundering legislation in the hands of governments with transitional economies and weak democratic traditions. Even if the anti-money laundering laws of the country comply with international pronouncements to the letter, there are still a number of ways the laws could be used for the sole purpose of persecuting political opponents. In the Yukos case, the money laundering charges were interrelated with the charges of corporate tax evasion, which, taken separately, in Russia, represent a rather weak tool for suppressing the political opponents, but taken together they are perfect for the confiscation of assets. This allowed the investigators to represent the activities of the giant corporate group as a process of committing organized criminal offense that continued for more than seven years

The Yukos Case: The New Dimension in Money Laundering Cases

PhD - Vol. 1 of 2 only - Vol. 2 contains appendices, tables of cases and legislation, and bibliography.The Yukos case is known for its unprecedented character and complexity as a Russian corporate, tax and money laundering case. It continues to raise political and legal problems, both domestically and internationally, and has already become a symbol of the contemporary Russian political regime. This dissertation analyses in detail the criminal and corporate aspects of the case, and focuses mainly on the reasons for, and the development and implications of the embezzlement and money laundering case, which is known as the backbone of the Yukos Affair. The thesis is primarily based on a comparative analysis of the international academic findings, case law and the Russian data on the case. The dissertation also discusses in detail the political nature of the Yukos Affair, whilst attempting to show the substantive aspects of case. The findings of the dissertation highlight new types of risk that result from the politically motivated application of Russian anti money laundering legislation to the activities of the international corporate groups, which has been enacted on the basis of the internationally recognised principles. The paper also describes the nexus between the corporate tax evasion schemes, which have been widely used in Russia, and money laundering risks for corporations. Such a situation creates potentially unavoidable criminal risks for all corporate groups that have functioned in Russia over the recent decade. The thesis shows that the corporations, which invest directly and indirectly in the Russian economy, must be aware of the politically driven corporate criminal risks, which quite commonly are not reflected in the corporate disclosure data, and remain unnoticed by the investors. The paper is unique as reflects the personal experiences of the author as the longterm leading lawyer to the Yukos group and as the consultant on the Yukos-related cases

Yukos Risk: The Double Edged Sword

Abstract The article focuses on elucidating the meaning of Yukos risk mainly in terms of corporate bankruptcy litigation in multiple jurisdictions, including, the U.S., U.K., The Netherlands, and Russia. The emphasis is on understanding the various legal theories and the court decisions reached so far in this continuing legal saga

The Siberian North and the dynamics of an image: from Barren Grounds to a Northern Plain

The article was submitted on 07.05.2016.Анализируется моделирование образа региона Сибирского Севера учеными, специалистами, управленцами, по работе и долгу службы связанными с этим регионом как с интеллектуальным конструктом. Он рассматривается также как феномен общественного сознания. Инструменты такого моделирования ограничены наиболее яркими, с точки зрения автора, научными, научно-популярными и публицистическими изданиями, ориентированными на широкий круг читателей. Первая такая попытка моделирования была предпринята в конце 1920-х гг. Это время серьезных преобразований административно-территориального характера, кардинальных изменений в экономической, социальной и культурной сферах жизни общества, которые не обошли стороной и окраины государства. Именно в это время шел интенсивный поиск путей развития северных территорий, велико было стремление раскрыть потенциальные возможности региона, опираясь на научно обоснованное комплексное использование его ресурсов. В полной мере эти идеи реализовались во второй половине XX в. после широкомасштабного освоения месторождений нефти и газа. В основе освоения Сибирского Севера в XX в. лежала идея индустриализации территории, затем реализованная на практике. Фактически индустриализация региона отождествлялась с прогрессивным развитием Севера. Все, что работало на развитие крупной промышленности, транспорта, коммуникаций на Сибирском Севере, объявлялось положительным, а что препятствовало поступательному движению в этом направлении, необходимо было устранить. В символическом и социально-экономическом пространстве СССР Сибирский Север стал освоенной, покоренной территорией. Однако впоследствии это привело к экологическим проблемам техногенного и антропогенного характера.This article analyses how the image of the Siberian North was formed by scientists, specialists, and officials as an intellectual construct that emerged from their work. The image of the region is also regarded as a phenomenon of collective consciousness. According to the author, such modelling was limited to the most vivid scientific, popular, and journalistic works, which were meant for a vast audience. The first attempt at such modelling was made in the late 1920s. This was a time of considerable administrative, social, cultural, and territorial changes, which manifested themselves not only in the central regions but also in the more remote parts of the country. The period was characterised by an intensive search for ways to develop the northern territories and uncover the potential of the region: it was to rely on a scientific use of its resources. These ideas were fully realised in the second half of the 20th century with the full-scale exploitation of oil and gas deposits. During the 20th century, the development of the Siberian North was based on the idea of the industrialisation of the region, which was later on implemented in practice. This industrialisation was perceived as a synonym for the development of the North. Anything that furthered the development of large-scale industry, transportation, and communications in the Siberian North was considered a positive development, while anything that impeded them had to be eliminated. In the symbolic and socio-economic space of the USSR, the Siberian North was a conquered land. However, this later led to anthropogenic environmental issues

Dynamics of energetic spectrum of solar-diurnal variations of cosmic rays in 19-24 solar activity cycles

The anisotropic angular distribution of cosmic rays (CR) in the interplanetary medium manifests itself on Earth as periodic diurnal intensity variations. Ground-based detectors of CRs have different energy sensitivity to the primary CR radiation and, therefore, the amplitude and phase recorded by them are also different. This fact makes it possible to study the energy spectrum of the variations when using a sufficient number of detectors. In this work, the results of the investigation of the energy spectrum of solar-diurnal variations of CRs obtained by a network of neutron monitors and muon telescopes are presented. The network allows measuring CRs with median energies from units to hundreds of GeV. The expected values of the amplitude and phase of the daily CR variations at the selected ground-based stations for different types of the energy spectrum are shown. The calculated data are compared with experimental data for 19-24 solar activity cycles

Investigating seasonal features of electron temperature enhancement regions in the subauroral ionosphere

The electron temperature enhancement is known to occur in the main ionospheric trough during geomagnetic disturbances. In this paper, we study fea-tures of the formation of the electron temperature (Te) enhancement in the subauroral ionosphere by comparing results of the numerical simulation with measurements of Te onboard the CHAMP satellite under moderate geomagnetic activity conditions. It is shown that depending on the terminator position and universal time (UT), the location of the enhanced Te regions in the subauroral ionosphere varies in different seasons. So, in winter ring-shaped and sickle-shaped regions can be formed, whereas during the equinox and summer periods sickle-shaped regions of different lengths and clarity are generally observed

NMDB database and global survey method

The method of a global survey developed in the 1970s allows using a world-wide network of neutron monitor stations as a single multidirectional device. Wherein, receiving characteristics of each device, which reflects their geometries and geographical positions, are taken into account. Such an approach makes it possible to define the first two angular moments of the distribution function of cosmic rays in the interplanetary space at each hour of observation. With the creation in 2008/2009 and subsequent development of an international database of neutron monitors NMDB, for the first time it appeared an opportunity to use the global survey method in real-time mode. Such a situation creates a unique possibility to use the results not only for scienti- fic researches but also for space weather forecasting. To use the data of the world-wide network of neutron monitors it is necessary to carry preliminary preparations. Thereby, in the current work, the main attention is attracted to a solution to some practical questions that arise when using the NMDB in real-time

Two subforms of eukaryotic topoisomerase I Purification and structure-function relationships

AbstractA new method for isolation of eukaryotic topoisomerase 1 from calf thymus and from Jurkat-1 cells using HPLC has been developed. The method allows quantitative purification of high molecular weight topo I and of two low molecular weight fractions differing by their isoelectric points. It has been suggested that these fractions be characterized as two subforms of the enzyme possessing structural and functional differences. The differences in their specific activities, sensitivity to camptothecin and in their proteolytic digestion maps have been demonstrated for the two enzymes

NMDB and space weather forecasting

From the creation of NMDB in 2007 and through the growth in the number of stations and the data accumulation, the ShICRA SB RAS group continuously have used its facilities. For the last years we have created a method for short-term forecasting of intense geomagnetic storms with an advance time 1-2 days. The probability of forecasting is around 80%. We have reported about the method in the previous NMDB: virtual symposium on cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors in 2020. The method is based on the global survey method that was developed in Yakutsk in 1960s and uses the world network of neutron monitors as a single multidirectional device. The method is intended to estimate hourly dynamics of cosmic ray anisotropy in free-space. Note that only with the NMDB creation we managed to implement it in real time mode. Now we started work on creating another method for space weather forecasting by measurements of cosmic ray fluctuations. For this purpose, we use 1-min data of NMDB. In the current report we present the first results of our investigation on forecasting of intense geomagnetic storms with Dst < -50 nT. The results obtained indicate the possibility of developing and implementing in real time a method for predicting strong geophysical manifestations of space weather on the basis of ground-based cosmic ray measurements