JURIST - Paper Chase: Arrest of Russia's richest man precipitates Moscow stock crash

This is Bernard Hibbitts at JURIST's anchor desk... The weekend arrest of Russia's richest man, oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky (the BBC provides a profile), precipitated a 12% drop Monday in the value of shares listed on Moscow's leading stock exchanges. At one point, trading on the MICEX exchange was temporaily suspended. Khodorkovsky has been charged with massive theft and tax evasion. His oil company, Yukos, has dismissed the charges as "absurd" in a press release available here. The Financial Times says that Russian business groups believe the aggressive action by law-enforcement agencies in seizing the industralist has discredited Russia's law-enforcement system and damaged its business climate. Russian President Vladimir Putin has appealed for calm and has insisted that the legal action against Mr. Khordorkovsky was entirely appropriate. The English-language Moscow Times has more.