[lbo-talk] Yukos affair goes nuts!

[Peter Lavelle]

Yukos Faces Rabbit Mating Allegation
November 6, 2003
By JIM HEINTZ
MOSCOW (AP) - The embattled Russian oil giant Yukos, already battered by 
the jailing of its head amid a politically tinged probe, also faces 
allegations of letting rabbits mate without supervision and of mistreating 
pigs, news reports said Thursday.
Some television news shows made much of the finding by a regional 
agricultural authority that a farm belonging to a Yukos-affiliated company 
had poor conditions for animals, placing the story at the top of newscasts 
accompanied with footage of piglets and bunnies.
The attention underlined the intense scrutiny surrounding Yukos since the 
Oct. 25 arrest of chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky by special forces at a 
Siberian airport. Khodorkovsky was then jailed on charges of fraud and tax 
evasion and he resigned his post on Monday.
The animal mistreatment allegations against Yukos surfaced in an inspection 
of a farm belonging to a Yukos-affiliated company in the Siberian region of 
Yakutia, news reports said.
The report found that male and female rabbits were kept together and 
``couplings take place unsystematically,'' the Interfax news agency said. 
Nursing sows are also kept in common stalls, which is against regulation, 
Interfax cited the report assaying.
In a statement on NTV television, Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin, 
appearing somber, said the company takes the complaint seriously and ``we 
express the hope that to the numerous charges filed against the Yukos 
company will not be added ... cruelty to animals.''

 

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