Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday February 4, 2005
The Guardian
The Russian government yesterday said it would press ahead with the merger between the gas giant Gazprom and state oil company Rosneft despite complications over the latter's controversial purchase of part of its rival, Yukos.
Finance minister German Gref told the Interfax news agency: "The question
will be decided in February. The idea will materialise but it remains a question of how."
The assurance comes after weeks of wrangling over Rosneft's purchase of Yuganskneftegaz, the production unit for Yukos. The Yukos empire has been slowly dismantled through a series of aggressive moves by Russian prosecutors against the company and its shareholders, including the former chief executive and Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
On Tuesday, finance minister Alexei Kudrin said that Chinese banks had helped provide $6bn (£3.2bn) towards the purchase of Yuganskneftegaz for $9.3bn. The loan had been given to Vneshekonombank, which in turn loaned Rosneft the money.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1405770,00.html
MAYBE less of a puzzle to those familiar with the organised crime history of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) CEO Sir John Bond, former Tory MP and Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten (now Chancellor of Oxford University) and the late Robert Maxwell. And their personal business dealings with Ken Lay.
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