MOSCOW, July 21 (UPI) -- Economists and investors condemned Moscow's threat to sell off Yukos, the nation's largest energy company, in payment of a controversial tax bill.
The Justice Ministry gave no timetable for a forced sale of OAO Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' treasured Siberian unit that accounts for more than half of its crude output, more than a million barrels a day, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
But people close to Yukos said the company's contacts inside the ministry indicated the unit might be sold within a week or so for as little as $1.75 billion, far less than many analysts say it's worth.
Yukos' tax bill is $3.4 billion.
An enforced sale of Yukos's core assets would leave the company in ruins.
"Yukos, as Russia's major company and potentially a global one, is gone," said Al Breach, chief economist at Brunswick UBS, a Moscow based investment bank. "This raises serious questions about (President Vladimir) Putin's real motives."
Said Mattias Westman, director at Prosperity Capital Management: "It's frustrating to see one of the very few world class companies in Russia being run to the ground like this."
