A FRIEND of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian billionaire on trial for alleged tax evasion and embezzlement, has promised to reveal information he says will prove that some of the Kremlin’s highest ranking officials are corrupt.

Leonid Nevzlin, a leading shareholder in Yukos, Khodorkovsky’s embattled oil company, claims to have compromising evidence against some of President Vladimir Putin’s closest associates.

Speaking from Israel, to which he fled more than a year ago after prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest, Nevzlin said he intended to make his material public if Khodorkovsky was found guilty this week.

“I want to tell about the people who are running the country and stealing from it,” said Nevzlin in an interview. “I will tell everything: about corruption in the Kremlin, about connections to business, about what kind of money Kremlin officials get and on what kind of yachts they spend their vacations.”

Khodorkovsky, 41, who has a personal fortune of £1.1 billion and until a few months ago was Russia’s richest man, has been in a Moscow jail since he was arrested in October 2003. He is on trial with Platon Lebedev, his number two.

Court proceedings, marred by irregularities, have ended and judges are to deliver a verdict on Thursday. If found guilty, both men face up to 10 years in jail.

Shortly before his arrest, Khodorkovsky was in talks with Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, about a possible merger between the latter’s oil company, Sibneft, and Yukos. The jailed tycoon was also negotiating with American oil companies interested in buying a stake.

Last year Yukos was accused of owing more than £10 billion in taxes. In a ruling denounced by critics as illegal, Yuganskneftegas — a subsidiary that was Yukos’s greatest asset — was put up for auction and bought by a group close to the Kremlin.

The conviction of Khodorkovsky, coupled with a tough sentence, would further dent business confidence in Russia. Putin will not be in Moscow for the verdict, however, but on an official visit to Israel.

Ariel Sharon, the Isareli prime minister, is expected to clash with Putin over Russia’s military assistance to Syria. Putin confirmed in an interview with Israeli television Moscow’s intention to sell advanced SA-18 anti- aircraft missiles to Damascus, but insisted they were defensive weapons.

Sharon, who fears the missiles could end up in the hands of militant Palestinians, has expressed his concern. Also high on the agenda will be Moscow’s continuing help for Iran’s nuclear programme.

Additional reporting, Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

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