Kremlin Adviser Condemns State Buyout Of Yukos
Speaking this week, Kremlin economic adviser Andrei Illarionov condemned the
effective renationalisation of Yukos as "the fraud of the year", a
move likely to anger President Putin, who has described the deal as "absolutely
legal". It emerged over the Christmas period that Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft
has acquired Baikal Finance, the mystery buyer of Yukos's prize asset Yuganskneftegaz.
Rosneft is due shortly to merge with gas and pipeline giant Gazprom, a closing
of the circle defended by President Putin, who justified the move by observing
that: "We all know perfectly well how privatization at the beginning of the
'90s was conducted and how some market participants got multibillion state assets
using different tricks, including some violations of then-existing legislation." According to reports in the international media, speaking with regard to the
effective government takeover of Yukos' main asset, Mr Illarionov suggested
that: "We used to see street hustlers do this kind of thing. Now officials are
doing it." He went on to add: "The destruction of Yukos has led to the flight of foreign investors from
this company, who have to move their assets into consortiums linked to the authorities." .
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