Yukos shareholder becomes Israeli

Khodorkovsky: Close ally of Nevzlin

A major shareholder in the embattled Russian oil giant Yukos has been granted Israeli nationality.

Leonid Nevzlin is a close associate of the former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is in jail in Moscow on fraud and tax evasion charges.

Mr Nevzlin - who is not known to be wanted on any charges in Russia - arrived in Israel two months ago as a tourist, an Israeli official said.

Mr Nevzlin reportedly controls 3.5% of YukosSibneft, a firm owned by Yukos.

The Russian authorities have frozen a block of shares controlled by Mr Khodorkovsky, amounting to more than 40% of Yukos. He has been in prison since 25 October.

A Russian minister suggested on Wednesday that Yukos would also be stripped of some of its exploration licences.

"The failure or the partial failure to fulfil licence obligations - almost inevitably in the current situation - will immediately lead to withdrawal of licences for its oilfields," Natural Resources Minister Vitaly Artyukhov told a state newspaper.

"The reasoning here is obvious: a company which has had a controlling packet of shares frozen is hardly an appropriate partner for co-operation with the federal licensing body," he was quoted in Rossiiskaya Gazeta as saying.

Mr Khodorkovsky resigned as chief executive on Monday and was replaced by Russian-born US citizen Simon Kukes.

Many Russians believe the case against Mr Khodorkovsky, who made his fortune through controversial privatisations in the 1990s, 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.