McClatchy Washington Bureau: It was ALL ABOUT THE OIL

In 2006, three years after the Russian government had charged Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then the country's wealthiest businessman with fraud and moved to break up his Yukos oil company, US diplomats had had enough. Gazprom, which grew out of the former Soviet Union's state gas ministry, had been busy buying up Yukos' far-flung empire, stoking American fears that soon Russia and its tough leader, Vladimir Putin, would control virtually all of the natural gas flowing to Europe. The United States wanted to stop that from happening, so the American embassy in Slovakia hired a Texas-based oil consultant and began secretly advising the Slovakian government on how to buy the 49 percent stake Yukos had held in Transpetrol, the Slovakian oil pipeline company. With no oil experience of its own, the Slovakian government didn't know how much it should pay. The consultant, who sat in on the negotiations, assured Slovakia's economy minister, Lubomir Jahnatek, that the $120 million price offered by the group disposing of Yukos' assets was a bargain. Gazprom was actually willing to pay much more! "We have made it clear to all parties that we do not want to publicize our role as technical advisers", the embassy said in an Aug. 10, 2006 cable that outlined what eventually became a deal. "Jahnatek is clearly appreciative of the input provided by the consultant, and will continue to look to him and the US embassy for information as he faces the challenges to the deal in the coming weeks."