«The Country that Destroys its Finest Company?»

Russian oil major YUKOS?s former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and another major Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev yesterday together appeared in a courtroom as the trial of notorious oil tycoons has begun.
During the trial Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev seemed to feel themselves comfortable.
"Everything is OK, you can see for yourselves," Khodorkovsky told Associated Press Television, speaking from inside the metal cage.
The billionaire businessmen face charges of fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion in connection with the 1994 privatization of a big, state-owned fertilizer plant. Both could face about 10 years in prison if convicted.
Yukos' stock price tumbled 8 per cent Tuesday after the news that Yukos managers were trying to strike a deal with the government on paying off the assessment - tacitly acknowledging that the tax claim would be ruled legal in a court hearing Friday. It fell a further 5.4 per cent Wednesday.
Robert Amsterdam, Khodorkovsky's Toronto-based lawyer, said outside the courthouse, "I am expecting nothing more than I've seen in the past," "This is a country that destroys its finest company while its senior members languish in jail illegally."