THINGS GO TO THE MOUNTAINS

COURT YES CASE

36-year-old Khabib Nurgamzaev, a resident of the Avar village of Burtunai, Kazbekovsky district of Dagestan, being a minority shareholder of OAO NK Yukos, wrote a statement of claim to the Moscow Arbitration Court, in which he asked to recognize illegal and ...

36-year-old Khabib Nurgamzaev, a resident of the Avar village of Burtunai, Kazbekovsky district of Dagestan, being a minority shareholder of OAO NK Yukos, wrote a statement of claim to the Arbitration Court of Moscow, in which he asked to declare illegal and invalid the decision of the board of Yukos-Moscow LLC No. 1 dated December 10, 2004 on filing with the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas (USA).

On January 26, 2005, the Moscow Arbitration Court accepted the application of the villager Nurgamzaev for proceedings.

One can only be glad for Mr. Nurgamzaev, who by his act decided to demonstrate a changed mentality: from time immemorial, the Avars and other mountain peoples solved problems with a dagger or a bullet.

But times have changed, and now - the trial of the century: a resident of the village of Burtunai against the court of the United States of America!

There is a version: it's just a village - so advanced, one of the first to join the civilized market. And if all the villagers are minority shareholders, then hold on, transnational corporations: there will be no descent either in the USA, or in Europe, or, for example, in Fiji.

They say that a lot depends on the neighbors. It seems to us that a great merit in the adaptation of the village of Burtunai to the world economic space belongs to another countryman of Nurgamzaev, Gadzhi Makhachev, who is sitting in the Russian State Duma for the second time for the benefit of the Fatherland. A well-known politician and public figure, whom enemies tried to slander more than once for his principled position on many controversial issues, calling him a “criminal authority” behind his back.

Prior to joining the Duma, Makhachev served as Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan and, heading Dagneft, was in fact the owner of the entire energy sector of the republic. Having become a people's choice, he left such a troublesome household to his relatives. But they somehow cope worse: last year, the whole of Makhachkala was turned off from domestic gas for a week, except for ... Makhachev's house on Pushkinskaya Street.

What is the connection between Burtunai (Republic of Dagestan) and Houston (Tehas)? Some knowledgeable people from the authorities claim: Khabib Nurgamzaev is from the team of Gadzhi Makhachev. And Mr. Makhachev is from the United Russia team, and United Russia is from the presidential administration team. But Yukos is from another teip.

So, alas, even an appeal to justice does not outlive the clan foundations of Russian power.

Meanwhile

The security forces can interpret the verdict of the Texas court in their favor

In Bratislava, Vladimir Putin met with George Bush. And in the homeland of the American president, the Houston court closed the "YUKOS case". Well, it happens like this - two events coincided in time. However, now there will certainly be no end to those who try to find non-existent causal relationships and draw conclusions. In their favor.

This, as you understand, is about a group of comrades whom foreigners mean by the word siloviki that has entered their lexicon. These are people who completely refuse to understand what else the Houston court, which they do not understand, can have to do with our Yukos: some cowboys in robes forbid the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, won back from Khodorkovsky by overwork, why?

The fact that the court could issue such a verdict on the basis of some laws, the security forces cannot even imagine. After all, how do they think: if the Houstonians lagged behind ours exactly after the rendezvous of Putin and Bush, it means that friend Vladimir convincingly asked his friend George about it, and he could not refuse - he dialed the number of the Houston judge on his mobile and commandingly ordered: "Stop!". What's incomprehensible here? In a sense incomprehensible to the security forces, who cannot believe in the independence of American justice from the executive branch in the same way that the inquisitors could not believe that the Earth is still spinning.

But now they will completely calmly ignore any international institutions - they can also be negotiated with. False optimism for the security forces will certainly be added by the fact that the court refused Yukos on purely formal grounds - the company has few assets in the United States. The Basmanny Court also does this, and often. With the difference that American justice cannot dismiss "formal signs", even if it recognizes the correctness of the plaintiff, while ours clings to formalities only when someone really needs it. And when it’s not necessary, they don’t even pay attention to torture

In fact, the verdict was almost in favor of Yukos: the Houston court did not agree with the trump card of the company's opponents that it was a purely domestic showdown. Thus, Yukos has the full right to seek justice in international instances, including by filing a lawsuit against Russian state authorities.

In a word, the verdict turned out to be double bottomed: a formal refusal does not put an end to the proceedings at all, but, on the contrary, makes the position of the plaintiff stronger. Is there any doubt that a sequel will follow? But now our security forces are unlikely to care ...

The last limiter has been broken in their minds: the ideology of fiscal terror has been formed, the mechanisms have been tested, and it is possible to move on to large-scale practice.

And immediately the sponsors of the deal on Yugansk ceased to be shy, and their curators breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed ...

In vain ... Malina will last until the first court decision. Because in Europe precedents are interpreted in terms of law, not concepts.

Alexey POLUKHIN