Once a high-flying Russian executive with eyes to the West, Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003. In a cloak and dagger operation, Russian secret service agents nabbed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the billionaire Russian oil tycoon who headed Yukos, a company that was on the verge of becoming a major international player in petroleum sales. The Kremlin seized 44 percent of the company's stock as the investigation against Khodorkovsky and other senior executives on tax evasion charges continued.

The moves roused fear in foreign investors, who feared that after a decade of opening up its markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin was shifting away from free markets and democracy. Worse yet, it led to chaos on the Russian stock market, where shares of Yukos and the main stock index in Moscow fell 20 percent since Khodorkovsky's arrest and the stock seizure.

LEARN MORE:

To learn more about this issue, visit  Deustche Welle.

In Focus documentaries and reports cover business and science, culture and education, historical and present day events as well as sports and leisure. This wide variety of topics is investigated in depth and presented in an informative format, making for captivating television, courtesy of Germany's Deutsche Welle news network.