Documents of interest to prosecutors seized in Yukos searches

In a search in the office of Alexei Pichugin, former chief of the security service of the Russian oil giant Yukos, the Prosecutor General's Office "has seized quite a few documents of interest for prosecution", Natalya Vishnyakova said to reporters on Friday. She is the deputy chief of the public relations board of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Among the documents are quarterly reports of the Yukos security service, particularly the number of criminal pleas and initiated cases against Yukos business rivals.

"Investigation will study them in order to reveal possible abuses by the law-enforcement officials and the Yukos security service," Vishnyakova said.

On Thursday investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office made searches in the Yukos business centre in Zhukovka near Moscow.