Oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkov-sky, arrested by security forces early yesterday, is by far Russia's wealthiest tycoon with an estimated US$8 billion fortune.
In recent weeks he has become increasingly caught up in a legal campaign launched against the Yukos oil giant, the focus of a series of fraud and murder inquiries that he says is politically motivated.
Analysts believe his troubles may be linked to his stated intention to fund a liberal opposition to President Vladimir Putin in the months leading up to parliamentary elections in December to be followed three months later by a presidential poll.
PHOTO: AP
The 40-year-old Yukos chairman finances two small opposition parties, Yabloko and the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) and reportedly, the largest opposition group, the Communists.
Khodorkovsky has been taken in for questioning before, notably last July in connection with the arrest of Platon Lebedev, the chairman of Menatep bank who is suspected of embezzling more than US$280 million worth of stock during the privatization of state-owned fertilizer maker Apatit in 1994.
That arrest was seen as a clear warning to the tycoon not to meddle in the upcoming elections.
From lowly beginnings as a loyal Soviet-era Communist Party member to the CEO of Russia's largest oil producer Yukos, Khodorkovsky made his billions in the free-for-all that accompanied the Soviet Union's collapse.
He was one of the quieter oligarchs to have supported former president Boris Yeltsin, whose mandate was notoriously marked by the huge influence carried by dazzlingly rich tycoons.
He now seems to be following an all too familiar pattern -- falling out with Yeltsin's successor Putin and suffering for it.
Khodorkovsky made his first millions before the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, before he turned 30, founding in 1987 what would become Menatap bank.
The Moscow native continues to hold a 59-percent stake in the bank, which made huge profits through currency speculation and grabbed up massive amounts of shares in companies that were privatized for bargain prices in the early 1990s.
Khodorkovsky's political ambitions began early. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, he followed the regular power track, joining the Komsomol Communist Youth League and later the Communist Party.
He then worked as a government adviser from 1990 to 1992, also briefly serving as deputy fuel and energy minister.
Yet the soft-spoken tycoon has come a long way since then, shedding his trademark moustache and Soviet-style suits for a more Western, clean-shaven look.
Observers here say the change goes beyond looks -- Khodorkovsky has become a model of transparency, paving the way for his company to become one of the darlings of Western investors.
In the last three years, he has opened up the bank's financing, issuing American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and bringing Westerners onto the board of directors.
Khodorkovsky bought Yukos at a state auction in 1995 at the knockdown price of US$350 million. He now owns 36 percent of shares in the oil firm, while Menatep holds over 60 percent.
He was one of the first Russian tycoons to openly declare his fortune and took 26th place in Forbes magazine's list of 476 billionaires published earlier this year.
Yukos recently completed a mega-merger with another Russian oil producer Sibnet, with the new company YukosSibnet set to become the world's fourth largest private oil producer.
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