American investors lost 6.7 billion dollars in the Yukos affair.

Gazeta.ru, 18.10.2007

US investors lost 6.7 billion dollars because of the Yukos affair and have not received any compensation, says Congressman Luis Gutierrez (Democrat-Illinois). Neither are they able to bring civil actions since Russia has still not ratified the Russian-American defence of investment treaty, adds Gutierrez, who heads the House Financial Services Sub-Committee for Domestic And International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology.

Speaking at the sub-committee hearing on the “Implications of the Yukos affair” for the US-Russia economic relationship, Gutierrez announced that the aim of the discussion was to “push the US administration into asking the Kremlin tough questions when the interests of American investors were at stake”.

The sub-committee would be sending a formal request for a response from the White House and the US Ministry of Finance about the Yukos affair, said Congressman Gutierrez.

The dubious auction of Yukos assets and other events surrounding the company led, in his words, “to a fall in the value of Yukos shares as a result of which the company’s American investors had never received compensation for their losses”.

“Although we still do not know what financial losses Americans incurred as a result of the ‘Yukos affair’, according to certain estimates the total value of the losses of the company’s US investors amounts to 6.7 billion dollars,” said the chairman of the sub-committee.

“The losses were incurred not only by institutional investors but also by individuals and by state and private pension funds,” Gutierrez emphasised.

“Instances like the Yukos situation create an uncertainty among potential investors which, in turn, can lead to substantial loss of investment for Russia and impede its integration into the global economy,” said the Congressman.

In his words, the actions of the Russian authorities in the energy sector “represent the extension of government control over the key resource behind Russia’s economic growth in recent years.”