Russia stays Yukos execution for three months

Yukos won a stay of execution when a Russian official said its main production unit will have three months to scrape up cash to cover a crushing tax bill that could otherwise bury the wounded oil giant.

The ministry instructed Yuganskneftegas to deal with tax violations "on 21 licenses, on the objects that the tax agencies have complaints about," natural resources ministry chief Yury Trutnev was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti early Saturday.
"In my view, we cannot recall (the license) since this would be illegal without issuing a three-month warning first," Trutnev was quoted as saying ahead of the licensing decision Friday.
"If Yuganskneftegas pays its taxes, the commission will have no complaints against it," Trutnev said after the decision was made.
Analysts did not see the decision as a victory for Yukos but rather a delay of the inevitable dismemberment of a company that was once a Western investment darling and still pumps two percent of the world's oil -- about the same as Iraq (news - web sites).
Yukos's assets are still frozen and it is unlikely to re-emerge whole after being saddled with a multi-billion-dollar tax debt that it is unable to pay off without access to its bank accounts.
The tax charges emerged only after company founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- now in jail -- expressed open political opposition to President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) last year.
The state has now ruled that Yukos must sell off assets to cover its debts and the first on the chopping block is Yuganskneftegas.
The Siberian crown jewel accounts for 62 percent of Yukos' production and its ownership would make any Russian company into a global power.
But the sheer size of Yugansk puts it out of reach for any one Russian company and Yukos chiefs are now accusing the state of playing behind the scenes games by trying to devalue the stake ahead of its potential sale.
Yugansk was unexpectedly saddled with a new one billion dollar tax bill earlier this week.
ITAR-TASS reported that Yukos board chairman Viktor Gerashchenko told a Russia-US investment forum in Washington this week that Moscow was undervaluing his company's assets to keep Western firms out of the Russian market.
The government has yet to reveal its assessment of Yukos's worth.

(From : Yahoo News)