Annual meeting of "Slavneft" sharehoders proved to be in question

An annual meeting of shareholders of the Russian-Belarussian oil and gas company "Slavneft" scheduled for the 29th of June may be put into question, said the vice-president of "Slavneft" Andrei Shtorkh to RIA Novosti on Friday.

He recalled that since Thursday evening access to the company's building in Pyatnitskaya street in Moscow had been stopped. On Monday morning the employees who came to work found a message on the locked doors which read that "in connection with investigative operations the 28th of June in Slavneft was considered to be a day off".

Neither executives nor employees could get into the building by the midday. In this context Shtorkh said that the annual meeting of shareholders was in question as all the necessary documents and materials remained in the locked office, which was blocked by people who claimed to be policemen.

The situation has been reported to the Russian Minister of Property Relationship, who is the Chairman of the board of directors in Slavneft, the vice-president stated.

"The state as the company's major shareholder must throw light upon the situation," Shtorkh said.

On the 27th of June the former president of Slavneft Mikhail Gutseriev, who was relieved from his position at the beginning of May 2002 at a meeting of shareholders, seized the building of Slavneft under the armed military men's support, dismissing the company's security guards.

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