A scare erupts in Vladimir Putin's country as a tycoon is arrested in Russia; Vladimir Yevtushenkov, major shareholder of telecoms company Sistema and owner of electronics company Sitronics, as well as oil company Bashneft, which has seen a 11.5 percent rise in oil production in the second quarter this year.
The tycoon's arrest in Russia marks the first time a major businessman has been taken into custody after Mikhail Khodorkovsky's 2003 arrest, which had his company, Yukos (the largest Russian oil company at the time), expropriated by the government and then sold in pieces. During his decade in prison, this tycoon's arrest became notorious, as he was said to have been imprisoned for political reasons - in all, Khodorkovsky then became a national symbol against the blatant corruption in Putin's government.
The new tycoon's arrest in Russia comes after Yevtushenkov's oil company, Bashneft, has seen a rise of 11.5 percent in the second quarter of 2014, as Russia's state-controlled company Rosneft has seen its output falling over the last few months, plus facing restrictions from the Western market as Russia's politics become more extreme and the Ukraine conflict goes on, The Moscow Times reports.
Yevtushenkov's major company, Sistema, lost one third of its value last Wednesday after his house arrest. This means an important blow to the country's already weak economy, as Sistema is one of the biggest companies in Russia.
The tycoon's arrest in Russia marks an important event: unlike Khodorkovsky before him, who had been frontal to Putin's politics and had even accused his government of corruption, Yevtushenkov has never been involved in politics and is considered loyal to the Kremlin. With this in mind, it would turn heads into a different perspective: Russia's important businessmen, however political they might or might not be, are no longer safe from prosecution in Vladimir Putin's government.
The official charges against Yevtushenkov are related to money laundering, for which he could be imprisoned for up to seven years.
