A new symbol for promoting shareholder rights has emerged in Russia - the toilet roll. The lavatorial necessity graced Russia's TV screens nearly everyday in the last week of March. It was part of an ad campaign by American investor Kenneth Dart in his battle against Russia's second-largest oil company, Yukos.
The camera pans back from a roll of cheap roll of Russian toilet paper to show a pyramid of 15 rolls. "Look at them," says the voice over. "They don't look expensive. Altogether they cost Rb35 [about $1.50]. But that is the price Yukos will pay for oil for the next three years. Is that fair?"
Dart, who commissioned the advert, owns small stakes at three of Yukos's main production companies: Tomskneft, Samaraneftegaz and Yuganzneftegaz. In a series of emergency general meetings called in March, Yukos attempted to push through changes to their charters that would lock oil prices of about $1.50 a barrel for the next three years and so entrench the transfer pricing that has allowed all the profits to accumulate at the holding company level, while the production companies slide further into debt.
Dart hopes that he can win over popular opinion and embarrass the government into taking some action.