Ms. Ding said officials began harassing the aid operation in 1998, when the authorities froze money sent from Germany.

The authorities have frozen the company's bank accounts and barred Yukos from selling assets to pay the bill.

The authority also has frozen merit increases for managers this year and reduced their health benefits.

Trade among individual currencies has all but come to a halt since May, when European authorities, making way for the euro, froze exchange rates.

Suspecting money laundering, the authorities froze the bank account of the local committee managing the crowds, which had gathered more than Rs.

Rwandan authorities have also cut telephone lines of agencies ordered out and have frozen their bank accounts.

The authorities then withdrew the permission and froze Yukos's accounts once again.

But they cannot get at their stock because the authorities have effectively frozen his assets in this country.

At one time the American authorities froze the Benex account, which had $34 million in it, an investigator said.

The Swiss authorities froze the account after complaints by Hermitage.