The Prosecutor General's Office demands that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev pay 1.4 billion rubles

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The Prosecutor General's Office has demanded that 986 million rubles and $1.8 million located in the bank accounts of former YUKOS co-owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky (recognized as a foreign agent) and Platon Lebedev be turned over to the state. The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow will hear the Prosecutor General's claim on May 27.

According to sources from Interfax , TASS and RIA Novosti , the funds are stored in accounts opened at PAO NB Trust. The Prosecutor General's Office is demanding that this money be recovered "in connection with the failure to compensate for damages" in the "Yukos case."

In 2005 and 2010, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were found guilty of fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by Vladimir Putin and left Russia, a year later Lebedev was also released.

Since the ECHR found that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's rights to a fair trial had been violated and that their criminal prosecution was politically motivated, both businessmen were entitled to rehabilitation and financial compensation. At the same time, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to overturn the Meshchansky Court's verdict in terms of collecting 17 billion rubles from them as compensation for damages for tax evasion.

In 2014, the International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hagueruled that the Russian government had illegally expropriated Yukos assets and ordered Russia to pay former shareholders $50 billion in compensation. The dispute over the payment continued until 2024, when the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld the decision.