Bush Would Never Let Such a Thing Happen

From CNN:

As Russia's deputy finance minister indicated that the government and oil giant Yukos could reach an agreement to restructure a multi-billion-dollar tax bill for 2000, the Russian prosecutor general Tuesday said that the company may be forced to pay back taxes for other years, too.

"This is a snowball. This case has a beginning, but it is very difficult to see the end," Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told radio station Echo in Moscow.

Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his close associate, Platon Lebedev, are facing trial on charges of fraud and tax evasion totaling more than $1 billion.

Oh wait. There's more!

Although the legal cases are technically separate, some observers believe they are both part of a Kremlin-directed effort to take over the company and eliminate Khodorkovsky's economic and political clout.

"There are signs that the destruction of the Yukos Oil Company is the end game," a senior U.S. diplomat said.

Now THIS is something Bush could appreciate.