YUKOS shares dropped by 10.06 percent in the first minutes of trading on the MICEX. By 11:35 Moscow time, they lost 18.79 percent.

According to analysts, Mr. Khodorokovsky’s arrest might lead to a 20 percent fall on the stock market. “The RTS index could drop to 500 points in one week,” said Vladislav Tropko, an analyst with Prospect investment company. In his opinion, the fall will affect not just YUKOS and Sibneft, and not only oil stocks, but almost all Russian shares. In particular, Mr. Tropko expects significant sales of Gazprom and LUKoil stocks. The prices for energy and telecommunications stocks are also expected to drop.

On Saturday, October 25, the Basmanny Court of Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was detained on the same say in the morning, and taken to Moscow for questioning.

In Moscow, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged him with six counts. In particular, the businessman is accused of fraud (Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code), non-compliance with a court judgment (Article 315), tax evasion (Articles 198 and 199), causing material damage by way of fraud and abuse of trust (Article 165) and document forgery (Article 327).

Mr. Khodorkovsky is being held in Moscow’s No. 1 detention center, better known as “Matrosskaya Tishina” (Sailor’s Silence). The oligarch is being held in an ordinary cell, together with several other people. The term of his detention is up to December 30.

The “YUKOS case” began on July 2, when Platon Lebedev, the company’s co-owner, was detained. The Prosecutor General’s Office charged him under four articles of the Russian Criminal Code: large scale fraud, causing material damage by way of fraud, non-compliance with a court judgment and tax evasion. In particular, Mr. Lebedev is accused of stealing a 20-percent stake in the company Apatit in 1994. The stake, worth about $283.142m, was owned by the government.

In mid-October, another co-owner of YUKOS, Vasily Shakhnovsky, was charged with tax fraud.