When Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other executives of Yukos, his oil company, were arrested last year, corporations investing or interested in investing in Russia were prepared to interpret the crackdown as an isolated incident brought on by the political agenda of the company and its CEO, who should have known better. Never mind that by the second half of 2003, it had become obvious that the government intended to use legal means – in the form of massive tax claims – to destroy the company.