Mikhail Khodorkovsky rose from obscurity to become chairman of Yukos, a giant Russian oil company and possible partner of Exxon-Mobil.(The Week)(Brief Article)

* Mikhail Khodorkovsky rose from obscurity to become chairman of Yukos, a giant Russian oil company and possible partner of Exxon-Mobil. He's the most visible of the oligarchs, or robber barons who made killings out of post-Communist privatization. What he did on the way up no doubt wouldn't satisfy the regulators, not that there are any real ones in Russia. Worse than cozying up to Westerners or lining his pockets, he's been financing parties and politicians of the center opposed to Vladimir Putin and men in the Kremlin. Parliamentary elections are due in December, and presidential elections next March, and the Kremlin has been preparing in KGB style by arresting or forcing into exile the Yukos people. Closing in at last on Khodorkovsky himself, masked secret servicemen burst into his jet at a refueling stop in Siberia, and hauled him off ...