Russian-born American heads Yukos
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Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, is accused of fraud.
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian-born American will replace Mikhail Khodorkovsky as the new chief executive of embattled oil giant Yukos.
Simon Kukes, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in the 1970s, joined Yukos this year from Russia's third-largest oil producer TNK, where he was president.
Khodorkovsky, at the center of a confrontation between the Kremlin and big business, resigned from the Russian oil giant Monday after he was jailed in Moscow a week ago on $1 billion fraud and tax evasion charges. (Full story)
Kukes mapped out his plans for the company Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin tried to calm international investors concerns over the Kremlin's meddling in business.
"We don't plan any changes in company behavior because the company is behaving normally. Everything stays intact and we have a strong team," Kukes told a news conference.
Yukos shares were little changed at $12.65 on the benchmark Russian Trading System in mid-morning Moscow trading Tuesday. The stock is down about 15 percent since Khodorkovsky's arrest at gunpoint on October 25.
Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man with an estimated wealth of $8 billion, stepped down Monday to save the company from further turmoil.
Putin tried to stem international criticism about the way Russian prosecutor had acted.
"In the United States too in the last two years a score of company bosses have been called before the courts," Putin told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview.
"But nothing happened and no one questioned the existence of the rule of law. For us too, it is nothing exceptional. It's that previously, those who had money did not end up in front of a court." (Full story)
