When a Siberian court issued an injunction at the end of last month to freeze Mikhail Fridman’s 44 per cent stake in Vimpelcom, the Russian mobile phone operator, just as western creditors were moving in, some investors feared it could be a repeat of practices honed in the August 1998 financial crash.

Then, the country’s business tycoons concocted elaborate schemes to keep their assets out of the reach of western banks, sometimes enlisting the help of Russian courts.