16 November 2003 20:40
Yukos workers shed few tears for jailed ex-boss
Sympathy for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's imprisoned oil magnate, is in short supply among workers in the
bleak Siberian town of Nefteyugansk, the main production site of the Yukos oil company.
Ivan Stepanovich, a drilling master at Pravdinsk oil field, says he is angry with Russia's richest man who was
arrested last month on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
"I am paid Rbs13,000 ($436) a month and live in a one bedroom flat with a sick wife and two children. Everyone
talks about his charity but we have not seen much of it here. The best thing he has done for us is this uniform,"
he says pointing to his ear-flapped Chinese-made hat with a Yukos logo.
Earlier this month, Mr Khodorkovsky resigned as the chief executive of Yukos in what he described as an attempt to
protect his company. He promised "to give all my strength to my country - Russia - in the great future of which I
firmly believe". But the workers in Nefteyugansk are doubtful.
While in the eyes of many western investors Mr Khodorkovsky is viewed as a new breed of businessman and a champion of
transparency and corporate governance, his own workers in Nefteyugansk, a company town built on the marshes of the Taiga
forest, may need more convincing about the virtues of their former boss.
Few of them give much thought to a political battle between the Kremlin and Mr Khodorkovsky. A recent opinion poll by
a local television station showed a vast majority in Nefteyugansk considered the arrest "an attempt to restore
order" rather than a slide towards a totalitarian regime.
As more workers gather in a concrete Soviet-style building ready to go out to an oil field where the temperature has
already dropped to minus 30 degrees, the anger builds up. "We have been treated like slaves. Why should we be
sympathetic to him when he has $8bn and we can hardly feed our families?" says Gennady Paznikov.
Mr Khodorkovsky has never been particularly popular with his workers but despite their harsh words few feel joy or
find justice in his arrest.
"We are not going to live any better just because they put him in prison. At least we had some stability. Now we
don't even know what is going to happen to us," says Sergei Nikolaevich.
The lives of Yukos workers have improved compared with five years ago, when salaries were delayed for several months
and workers were paid Rbs100 a day, barely enough to survive.
"There were daily demonstrations here against Yukos and Khodorkovsky. Workers were ready to go on strike. The
town was dying," says Andrei Belokon, a journalist in Nefteyugansk.
Since then, property prices have risen four-fold and new buildings have sprung up. A night-time entertainment centre
complete with restaurants, a bar, a casino and a bowling hall opened in September. A once-empty shop is now selling
everything from Israeli-produced avocados to Chanel perfume.
Yukos is sponsoring a local school programme, subsidising mortgages for workers and helping relocate pensioners to
more friendly climates. Sergei Kudriashov, head of Yugansneftegas, credits Mr Khodorkovsky for building Russia's
best system of corporate governance in the country. "He has really turned this company around," Mr Kudriashov
says.
Vladimir Podgursky, who works at Priobskoe oil field, one of the largest in Yukos, says the company is squeezing its
workers and its oil wells dry. The doubling of production is more the result of an aggressive exploitation of existing
wells than of new drilling, he says.
"We pump out twice as much oil from every well as we used to before. But all this means is that in 5-10 years,
there will be nothing left here apart from a mound of rusty metal," he says.
The complaints of Yukos workers are intensified by the contrast between Nefteyugansk and the neighbouring oil town of
Surgut, where workers are paid almost twice as much and standards of living are higher.
Surgut is home to Surgutneftegaz, an oil company run by Vladimir Bogdanov, a publicity-shy oilman who has managed to
keep the company intact since Soviet days.
In the late 1990s hundreds of workers moved from Yukos to Surgut. "We would have all gone to work to Surgut but
they don't need any more people there," one worker says.
Mr Bogdanov, who in the west has the image of an awkward red director, is a rare example of a Russian boss popular
with his workers.
Rushan Gabdrakmanov found a job at Surgut. "Coming here was like coming to a different country. There is more
stability and the pay is better. Every holiday we raise a toast to Bogdanov."
Mr Khodorkovsky may have to work hard to persuade his workers to raise a toast to him.
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