One of Russia’s richest men, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, has been placed under house arrest and is facing possible charges of money laundering.

Since 1993 he has built a telecom company into powerful conglomerate of activities, including oil. The AK Systema group includes oil company Bashneft. This has been rumoured to be a takeover target for the state oil behemoth Rosneft.

On Wednesday Rosneft said comments by ex-Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky linking the house arrest of Yevtushenkov to its interests in the conglomerate’s oil assets were “absurd”.