Description
For anyone who thinks money beats power: Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia — until he challenged Putin on corruption, on camera.
Inside: the real February 2003 confrontation footage, the glass-cage trial, how a $50 billion empire was dismantled piece by piece, and the ruling Russia still refuses to pay.
This is how a government took $15 billion without ever calling it theft — how the highest arbitration tribunal on Earth billed Russia $50 billion for it — and why no court in the world can force a nuclear-armed state to pay.
CHAPTERS
0:00 The Man in the Glass Cage
0:50 $15 Billion — Russia's Richest Man
1:12 The Meeting, Live on State TV
1:40 The Deal He Named Out Loud
2:30 The Jet on the Runway
3:20 Where a Crackdown Becomes a Heist
4:10 The Shell Company Nobody Had Heard Of
5:00 Nine Years — Then Another Ten
6:15 The Victory Lap
6:40 The $50 Billion Ruling
7:30 Why Nobody Can Make Russia Pay
7:55 What It Was Really About
A NOTE ON THE $50 BILLION
The 2014 ruling was awarded to Yukos's former majority shareholders (GML) — not
to Khodorkovsky personally. He signed his stake over in 2005 and has renounced
any claim to the money. A Dutch court set the award aside in 2016; it was
reinstated on appeal and made final by the Netherlands' Supreme Court. With
interest it now exceeds $60 billion. Russia has never paid it.
SOURCES
Yukos shareholders v. Russia (Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukos_shareholders_v._Russia
Forbes — Why Russia's onetime richest man won't see a penny of the $50 billion
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2020/02/19/why-russias-one-time-richest-man-wont-see-a-penny-of-the-50-billion-putin-destroyed/
NPR — Court orders Russia to pay former Yukos shareholders $50B
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/336059424/court-orders-russia-to-pay-former-yukos-shareholders-50b
De Brauw — Yukos shareholders secure victory in $50 billion arbitration dispute
https://www.debrauw.com/matters/yukos-shareholders-secure-victory-in-50-billion-arbitration-dispute
Khodorkovsky.com — The Yukos cases
https://khodorkovsky.com/resources/yukos-cases/
ERASED is a series about the people power tried to delete.
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#Khodorkovsky #Putin #Russia #Yukos