The Russian state companies bent on taking over the assets of oil giant Yukos may have the Kremlin on their side, but they still have to deal with Tim Osborne. So might any Western banks that try to lend the Russian acquirers money. Osborne, a 53-year-old London tax lawyer, was thrust to the center of Russia's hottest controversy in March 2004 when he was named a managing director of Group Menatep. Until Yukos was dismembered by the Russian government over alleged unpaid taxes, Menatep owned most of it. Osborne, who had previously represented Moscow investors before the U.K.'s Inland Revenue, suddenly was asked to defend the interests of the group's imprisoned principals, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
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