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Oil giant Yukos in talks with Moscow to settle tax bill

The giant Russian oil company Yukos is discussing the settlement of a multi-billion-dollar tax claim against it with the tax ministry, the Interfax news agency quoted a top minister as saying yesterday.

"There is cooperation on the possibility of settling the claim," Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

Yukos and the tax ministry are in litigation over the ministry's claim for more than 99 billion rubles (US$3.4 billion) in unpaid taxes, in addition to extra fines and interest.

Yukos, which has been under investigation for nearly a year, has warned it cannot pay the bill because of a freeze imposed on its assets and will be forced to declare bankruptcy if it is ordered to pay the claim immediately.

The firm and the ministry have filed a myriad of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits over the past several months and a court may issue a ruling this week on when Yukos will have to pay the claim.

Analysts have said that the company could strike a deal with the authorities to avoid bankruptcy after President Vladimir Putin's comments last week that the government did not wish to see the nation's largest oil producer go belly up.

Many observers are convinced that the government's aim is to wrest control of Yukos from its jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his fellow shareholders, who are nearly all either in jail or exile.

The arrest of Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, and the troubles of his company are widely seen as Kremlin payback for his political ambitions and open defiance of Putin.
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