Khodorkovsky confirms UK letter sent to Russian government

Former CEO of Russia’s oil major Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky has confirmed that a letter from U.K. investors proposing to pay off Yukos’ tax debts, has been sent to the Russian government, Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Genrikh Padva told ITAR-TASS Friday.

“Khodorkovsky confirmed that the letter is with the government,” Padva said, adding that his client welcomes all measures being taken to settle the situation.

Meanwhile, a source with Moscow’s Meshchansky Court, which is hearing Friday the united case against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, said that “Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Anton Drel has set off to London to negotiate with the investors over the contents of the letter.”

Reportedly, a U.K.-based group of investors led by a former colleague of Mikhail Khodorkovsky offered to pay Yukos' $3.4 billion tax bill and bail out the former chief executive in exchange for Khodorkovsky's stake.

"Financial investors are prepared to buy Khodorkovsky's and his partners' shares in Yukos, currently under arrest by a Moscow court, in order to provide bail for Khodorkovsky," said the July 21 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.

In the letter, the investors said they could pay the money directly to "Russia's federal budget." The letter was addressed to President Vladimir Putin and signed by George Miller, who identifies himself as a representative of a group of unspecified investors.

Yukos is doing everything it can to continue dialogue with the government, the company’s CEO Steven Theede told a press conference Thursday.

But so far Russia’s largest oil producer and exporter has failed to reach a compromise over the company’s tax debt on its own.

"In the past six weeks we have sent 11 letters, but have not received a single reply." But the company intends to continue in its attempts to resolve the issue, Theede said Thursday.


HERE