Russians apply to raid London offices of jailed Yukos oligarch

The Home Office is believed to be considering an application from the Russian authorities to allow them to raid the London offices of oil giant Yukos.

The Home Office is believed to be considering an application from the Russian authorities to allow them to raid the London offices of oil giant Yukos.

Yukos's offices in Russia and Switzerland have already been searched and the Russian authorities are now thought to want to do the same in the UK.

The investigation started last year when the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos's largest shareholder and chief executive, was arrested at gunpoint on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

Mr Khodorkovsky, along with fellow detainee Platon Lebedev, the former president of Yukos, deny the charges, claiming they are politically motivated. Prior to his arrest, Mr Khodorkovsky had been campaigning for lenient taxes on oil company profits and lobbying members of parliament to vote against plans to raise taxes. Yukos, which has seen its share price tumble in recent weeks, is Russia's biggest oil company and has a market value of $30bn (£17bn).

The authorities are trying to build a case against the two men, and therefore want to search Yukos's offices for relevant documents. A London law firm, understood to be connected to Yukos, has written to the Home Office asking for clarification over any possible approach from Russia to the British Government for "mutual legal assistance". The Home Office responded by saying it was unable to "confirm or deny the existence of any such request", although it urged the solicitors to "submit such representations as you consider appropriate as soon as possible".

However, while the Swiss authorities co-operated with the Russian investigation - bank accounts worth "several billion" Swiss francs have been frozen - there is no guarantee the UK Government will do the same.

Last year a request was made for the extradition of Boris Berezovsky, another Russian oligarch and a political opponent of President Valdimir Putin, but the UK authorities refused it.

Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested in October after a four-month investigation by the Russian authorities that included searches of the company's offices and law firms, as well as an orphanage funded by Yukos. A 40 per cent stake in the company, controlled by Mr Khodorkovsky and his partners, was later frozen and a $13.9bn deal to take over its smaller rival Sibneft collapsed.

Last month Yukos had its assets frozen by a Moscow court to ensure it can pay a $3.5bn claim for tax arrears and any subsequent fines.