The funds will go to infrastructure projects and social programs, including road building, maintenance and repair, improving housing conditions, renovation of apartment blocks, nuclear and radiation safety, and research and development programs, the Kremlin press service said.
Key assets of Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, have been sold off at liquidation auctions to repay billions of dollars in back taxes. The company has virtually repaid its debts to creditors. The Yukos register of creditors' claims included 137 claims from 63 creditors totaling 709.512 billion rubles (about $27 billion). Analysts consider the assets to have been sold at a hefty discount.
The Finance Ministry said earlier it expected the budget to receive up to 450 billion rubles ($17.45 billion) from Yukos, and that the money would be used to overhaul the municipal sector, and finance development institutions, among other things.
Yukos was declared bankrupt on August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities. Its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.
