Secret police snatched Russia's richest man, YUKOS oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, from his jet in Siberia today and hauled him before a Moscow court, charged with massive fraud and tax evasion.
After months of pre-election arm-wrestling with President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, the move seemed calculated to demonstrate who was boss to the fabulously wealthy "oligarchs" who control post-Soviet Russia's natural resources and industry.
A spokeswoman for the General Prosecutor's office, who said the oil magnate was grabbed on the tarmac at Novosibirsk after failing to appear for questioning in Moscow yesterday, said he was flown back to the capital and charged on seven counts.
Prosecutors said the case involved an "unprecedented" level of fraud and tax evasion amounting to some $1 billion.
He was later driven from the prosecutor's office to a court for a ruling on whether he could be kept in detention.
Prosecutors made clear the charges were brought against the 40-year-old Khodorkovsky both as an individual and as head of YUKOS. Russia's biggest oil firm, it recently engineered a merger with smaller rival Sibneft. U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil is said to be interested in taking a stake.
Russia's "$11-billion-man" has been embroiled in months of conflict with the Kremlin ahead of parliamentary elections in December and Putin's expected bid for re-election in March.
The former KGB agent, whom supporters hail for bringing order to the lawless nation that emerged from the rubble of Communism, is expected to stroll to victory despite criticism that he has suppressed media and other democratic freedoms.