 In 2005, the National Priority Projects were launched to improve Russia's health care, education, housing and agriculture.The continued criminal prosecution of Russia's then richest man, President of Yukos oil and gas company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud and tax evasion was seen by the international press as a retaliation for Khodorkovsky's donations to both liberal and communist opponents of the Kremlin.The government said that Khodorkovsky was "corrupting" a large segment of the Duma to prevent changes to the tax code.