Yukos man stays in custody; Platon Lebedev remains in prison. And there is no sign of an end to the campaign against Yukos.(shareholder scandal)

The Yukos scandal stubbornly refused to go away this week, fuelling uncertainty about Russia's investment climate.

Moscow city court ruled on 23 July that Yukos' number two shareholder, Platon Lebedev, should remain in the city's Lefortovo prison, confirming the Moscow district court's earlier refusal to set bail. The decision on whether or not to free Lebedev had been seen as a litmus test of the gravity of recent moves against the company's chief executive and leading shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Lebedev's arrest earlier this month, on charges relating to the 1994 privatisation of fertiliser firm Apatit, marked the start of what was initially seen as …