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Yuri Botiuk, director, McGrigors
Not for the first time in recent history, corruption in Russia is making headlines.
In the past few weeks we have seen the former mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov sacked by President Medvedev in the wake of allegations of wrongdoing. We have heard criticisms that raids on the bank controlled by media magnate Alexander Lebedev were politically motivated. We have also read the impassioned pleas of former Yukos oil magnate Mikhail Khodorovsky that his latest trial has little to do with alleged misdemeanours and is more a struggle for the soul of the Russian Federation as it battles corruption. He apparently told the judge presiding in his case: "You're deciding the fate of more than two people - the fate of every citizen in our country is at stake."
Memories of the Yukos affair do little to reassure international investors, while TNK-BP...