Foreign advisers to the crisis-hit Russian oil giant Yukos are planning to lobby the US Government on the firm's behalf, BBC News Online has learnt.
Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in jail facing fraud and tax evasion charges, and almost half the company's shares were frozen by Russian authorities on Thursday.
Many Russians believe the case against Mr Khodorkovsky, thought to be Russia's richest man, is politically motivated.
He has funded opposition groups, breaking what analysts say was a tacit agreement to stay out of politics in return for avoiding investigation of his financial affairs.
According to Stuart Eizenstat, ex-US Deputy Treasury Secretary and member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) to the company that controls Yukos, the board members are preparing to use their influence in Washington, London and Berlin to push for support for Yukos.
"We do not see any justifiable legal basis" for the Kremlin's actions, he told BBC News Online.
"We are each trying to activate our respective governments."
Among his fellow board members are a former German economics minister and a British ex-MP.
In Russia, some predicted fresh falls in Yukos shares, the wider stock market and the rouble, but others disagreed.
On Thursday, Yukos lost another 12% of its market value, while the RTS index was down 8% and the rouble tumbled against the dollar.
"For those who can stomach it, it does look like a buying opportunity," Sovlink brokerage and investment house's Eric Kraus told BBC World Business Report.
Hot water
Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company, has been in trouble with the Russian Government for some time.
A Gibraltar-based firm, Group Menatep, controls 44% of the firm's shares on behalf of a group led by Mr Khodorkovsky.
Menatep selected its International Advisory Board (IAB) earlier this year as part of a structure designed to make Yukos a poster-child for good corporate governance in Russia.
Last week, Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on suspicion of tax evasion and defrauding the state, joining fellow Menatep shareholder Platon Lebedev in jail.
And now prosecutors have frozen the block of Yukos shares controlled by Mr Khodorkovsky.
The shares were in fact owned by two Menatep-owned companies in Cyprus and the Isle of Man, a fact which Yukos says makes the seizure illegal.
'Crackdown'
According to Mr Eizenstat, the IAB discussed the situation on the phone on Wednesday and members expressed "grave concern" about what was happening both to Yukos and to Russia.
"This is part and parcel of a broader crackdown" threatening Russian business and democracy and attacking the rule of law, he told BBC News Online.
"It runs the risk of harming the Russian economy, dampening enthusiasm for foreign investment and raising questions about whether it is safe to do business in Russia."
There are also human rights questions, he said, which the board was hoping to raise with United Nations and European bodies.
Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in jail facing fraud and tax evasion charges, and almost half the company's shares were frozen by Russian authorities on Thursday.
Many Russians believe the case against Mr Khodorkovsky, thought to be Russia's richest man, is politically motivated.
He has funded opposition groups, breaking what analysts say was a tacit agreement to stay out of politics in return for avoiding investigation of his financial affairs.
According to Stuart Eizenstat, ex-US Deputy Treasury Secretary and member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) to the company that controls Yukos, the board members are preparing to use their influence in Washington, London and Berlin to push for support for Yukos.
"We do not see any justifiable legal basis" for the Kremlin's actions, he told BBC News Online.
"We are each trying to activate our respective governments."
Among his fellow board members are a former German economics minister and a British ex-MP.
In Russia, some predicted fresh falls in Yukos shares, the wider stock market and the rouble, but others disagreed.
On Thursday, Yukos lost another 12% of its market value, while the RTS index was down 8% and the rouble tumbled against the dollar.
"For those who can stomach it, it does look like a buying opportunity," Sovlink brokerage and investment house's Eric Kraus told BBC World Business Report.
Hot water
Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company, has been in trouble with the Russian Government for some time.
A Gibraltar-based firm, Group Menatep, controls 44% of the firm's shares on behalf of a group led by Mr Khodorkovsky.
Menatep selected its International Advisory Board (IAB) earlier this year as part of a structure designed to make Yukos a poster-child for good corporate governance in Russia.
Last week, Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on suspicion of tax evasion and defrauding the state, joining fellow Menatep shareholder Platon Lebedev in jail.
And now prosecutors have frozen the block of Yukos shares controlled by Mr Khodorkovsky.
The shares were in fact owned by two Menatep-owned companies in Cyprus and the Isle of Man, a fact which Yukos says makes the seizure illegal.
'Crackdown'
According to Mr Eizenstat, the IAB discussed the situation on the phone on Wednesday and members expressed "grave concern" about what was happening both to Yukos and to Russia.
"This is part and parcel of a broader crackdown" threatening Russian business and democracy and attacking the rule of law, he told BBC News Online.
"It runs the risk of harming the Russian economy, dampening enthusiasm for foreign investment and raising questions about whether it is safe to do business in Russia."
There are also human rights questions, he said, which the board was hoping to raise with United Nations and European bodies.
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