On Wednesday, 30-th of September, 2009, at Michail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev trial, as a witness for prosecution there laid before the court the head of the Austrian oil company «East Petroleum Handles» Evgeny Rybin. He is also known for the second Alexey Pichugin’s and Leonid Nevzlin’s criminal case where he was a target in the investigation as a victim.

On Wednesday, in the Khamovnichesky court he confirmed the public prosecution’s version about oil’s misappropriation and money laundering by the defendants. Also, the witness confirmed that «Yukos» had bought up the oil of its daughter companies on knock-down prices, and the profits «accumulated in Khodorkovsky’s pockets». According to Rybin, the ex-head of «Yukos» invented such notion as a «downhole fluid», i.e. under the documents there underwent that the subsidiaries produced not oil, but such fluid, which demands finalization.

Besides, the witness told about attempts at his live, allegedly, from the direction of the former «Yukos» employees.

Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant stated after completion of hearings on Wednesday, that the defense intentionally hadn’t interrupted Rybin, although he had given the evidence which didn’t concern the present case, concentrating the attention on those episodes of which the defendants had never been accused. According to his words, the public prosecution plays a trick instead of presentation of proofs. «Instead of backing their charges by proofs, demonstrating the proofs to us, everything is substituted for engaging in pointless debates and for attempt of creation of a negative reputation around our clients for covering up the absence of proofs which is typical in this case», — Klyuvgant stated to the informational agency NEWSru.com.

Evgeny Rybin’s interrogation will be continued on Thursday. Rybin and «Yukos». History of conflict

This conflict between Rybin and «Yukos» started in 1997. Then, Michail Khodorkovsky’s company became owner of the oil-producing enterprise «Tomskneft». The treaty, held before between «Tomskneft» and «East Petroleum Handles» about joint development of the Zapadno-Poludennoe and Krapivinskoye oil fields was avoided unilaterally. The «Yukos» management considered this contract as «fettering». The «Yukos» auditing department revealed that its terms were unprofitable for the company. «East Petroleum Handles» sold its goods and services, which the «Yukos» oil company at that moment hadn’t need, on overestimated prices.

In 1998 «East Petroleum Handles» brought in the action to the Viennese Court of Arbitration against «Yukos» about alleged damage, caused as a result of the termination of the treaty. These were those actions that the General Prosecutor’s Office used later in the second Alexey Pichugin’s and Leonid Nevzlin’s trials, called them a motive for committing attempts at Eugeny Rybin’s life.

The first attack at Rybin happened in November, 24, 1998 in the Udaltsova street, 30, in Moscow where the entrepreneur, according to his words, was shot by the former Volgograd paratrooper Eugeny Reshetnikov. The second attempt happened in March, 1999 in the Moscow region. The businessman’s car with body-guards and a driver, approaching his house (Rybin himself at this time was at the birthday of his nephew) was blown up. As a result, the driver died, and the body-guard Alexey Ivanov was seriously wounded.

Alexey Pichugin’s lawyer Kseniya Kostromina (and later – also Leonid Nevzlin’s lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov) in the course of hearing of arguments pointed out a failure to prove the fact of «Yukos» top-management’s interest in Eugeny Rybin’s murder. The Viennese Court of Arbitration had taken a decision to satisfy the first Rybin’s suit only for 10%, and it had refused the second one. Thus, according to Kostromina, «Yukos» had no motive to assassinate Rybin. At that, the decision of the Court of Arbitration deprived Rybin of a possibility to gain super-profits, as it had been before because of unfair deals of «Tomskneft» (when the company was state) and of «East Petroleum Handels».

In November 2000 Eugeny Reshetnikov was established by court an executer of the attempts at Eugeny Rybin and sentenced to imprisonment. The customers of the crimes were not established then, the «Yukos» top-management’s participation wasn’t revealed. The special speaker of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger , having examined this case, passed the opinion that Rybin had faked the attempts for to support his suits against «Yukos» in Austria.

In July, 2004 Leonid Nevzlin accused Rybin of extortion. Nevzlin sent to the then General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Vladimir Ustinov a letter, in which he stated that Rybin by the instrumentality of the employees of the law enforcement agencies had looked for false witnesses and had falsified the materials against the «Yukos» oil company, including – on Pichugin’s case, availed himself of that Pichugin had already kept in the detention facility «Lefortovo». In two days after giving by Nevzlin a statement to the General Prosecutor the Basmanny court of Moscow sanctioned his arrest (but by that time Leonid Nevzlin had moved to Israel to permanent residence).

Some mass media expressed suppositions, that Rybin had tried to get money from «Yukos» top-management for reckoning with creditors, attempted at his life. Meanwhile, during the second Alexey Pichugin’s trial in July, 2006 Eugeny Reshetnikov suddenly «remembered» that attempts at Rybin had been allegedly ordered to him by Pichugin and Nevzlin. The analogous evidence were given by Gennady Tsygelnik.

However, on April, 21, 2008 at Leonid Nevzlin’s trial in the Moscow City Court Gennady Tsygelnik refused his previous evidence against Leonid Nevzlin and Alexey Pichugin. He stated that he had slandered the «Yukos» employees under pressure from the investigation in exchange to indulgence in terms of imprisonment.

Also, the similar evidence gave Evgeny Reshetnikov. According to him, the investigator Burtovoi had told that Leonid Nevzlin and Alexey Pichugin are the customers of the crimes, and then he advised to give «truthful evidence».

But the manager of «East Petroleum Handles» affirms that allegedly the representatives of «Yukos» threatened him, and the suits in the court of arbitration he calls the motive of attempts at his life.

It is also remarkable how Alexey Pichugin’s identification by Evgeny Rybin happened. In Rybin’s record of interrogation in the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation from July, 17, 2003 the evidence of the victim are written where it is stated that three «Yukos» employees were present during business talks with him.

Among them – two representatives of the company’s management and the employee of the Security department, «whether Pichuzhkin, or Pichugin», who behaved himself very firmly. It was not high person, lean, with dark hair.

Meanwhile, as it is known, Alexey Pichugin’s appearance is absolutely different from that one, described by Evgeny Rybin. Alexey Pichugin’s height is 184 cm, his figure is solidly built, his hair is fair. When carrying out the procedure of identification, Evgeny Rybin was shown some extras, who looked just as the victim described in his evidence – not high, with dark hair, lean, and Alexey Pichugin. And Rybin unmistakably «identified» Pichugin.