Moscow Court Upholds Additional Tax Bill For Yukos

Yukos's Moscow headquarters (file photo) (epa) November 28, 2006 -- Moscow's Arbitration Court has upheld the Russian tax authorities' claim for an additional $640 million in back taxes from Yukos.

The decision was handed down on November 27.

That brings the total tax bill owed by the bankrupt oil company to more than $20 billion.

The former chairman of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year term in a Siberian prison camp after being convicted of fraud and other crimes in a trial widely viewed as politically motivated.

(AFP)

Democracy In Russia

Demonstrators in Moscow carry a coffin with a television in it to protest government control over broadcasting (TASS file photo)

DO RUSSIANS LIKE THEIR GOVERNMENT? During a briefing at RFE/RL's Washington office on November 15, Richard Rose, director of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen, discussed the results of 14 surveys he has conducted since 1992 on Russian public opinion about democracy and the country's development. He discussed the implications of these opinions for relations with the West and for Russia's 2008 presidential election.