MOSCOW, Dec. 28 -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man, accused the Kremlin in a letter published Tuesday of stealing his Yukos oil empire by manipulating the law.
Khodorkovsky, who has been in jail for more than a year on fraud and tax evasion charges, also assailed efforts by President Vladimir Putin to strengthen the control of the central government. He predicted that the Kremlin's moves to end the popular election of regional governors and limit economic competition and free speech would ruin the nation.
The letter was published about a week after Yukos's most important production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, was bought at auction for $9.3 billion by a front company apparently operating on behalf of Rosneft, a state-owned oil firm. Within days of the auction, Rosneft bought the previously unknown firm, effectively nationalizing the prolific Siberian oil fields. Foreign auditors said the unit was worth about twice the purchase price.
In an apparent reference to the sale of the Yukos subsidiary, Khodorkovsky said in his letter that this "was the most senseless and destructive event in the economic sphere since President Vladimir Putin has taken helm." His letter was published in Vedomosti, a leading Russian business daily, and also on Khodorkovsky's Web site.
Khodorkovsky accused the state of shamelessly trampling on legal norms to wrest Yukos from its owners. He called the government's claim that Yukos owed $28 billion in back taxes a "bad joke," saying the amount exceeded the company's earnings. The Russian government has said it ordered the sale of the Yukos unit to raise the money to pay the tax debt.
Putin has portrayed the prosecutions of Yukos and Khodorkovsky as a crackdown on corruption.
But there is strong sentiment in Moscow that the government's investigation of Yukos and Khodorkovsky is a Kremlin power play aimed at neutralizing a political opponent and reclaiming control in the crucial oil sector.
Yuganskneftegaz produces about 11 percent of Russia's oil, or about 1 percent of world output. Its sale was the most disputed corporate auction in Russia's history, and it left what was once the nation's most transparent company in ruins.
Khodorkovsky, who with an estimated fortune of $15 billion had been ranked 16th on Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people, said his personal wealth would "soon come to zero," but he added that losing his money wasn't "unbearably painful."
His letter contrasted sharply with others Khodorkovsky published from prison this year before the sale of the Yukos subsidiary. In those, he apologized for his actions and praised Putin.
