The proceeds from the sale of assets of the now defunct oil company Yukos were spent on establishing a fund for housing and utilities sector reforms, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
"Of these funds, we formed the housing and utilities fund, with a budget of 240 billion rubles [$8 billion at the current exchange rate]," Putin said during his annual TV and radio phone-in.
Yukos was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over the company's tax arrears and formally ceased to exist in November 2007, after its assets had been sold off through a series of liquidation auctions to meet vast creditor claims. State oil company Rosneft bought up the lion's share of the production assets, becoming Russia's largest oil producer.
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. He has consistently denied all charges against him, saying he was punished for supporting the tiny pro-Western opposition, and that the liquidation of Yukos was engineered by corrupt government officials aiming to seize lucrative oil assets.
Putin said that 10 million people have already benefited from the housing and utilities fund, as their houses and apartments have been repaired, while 15,000 people will be moved from sub-standard accommodation to new homes.
Putin also said that the procedure of Yukos's bankruptcy had been initiated by western creditors.
"The bankruptcy was carried out in full compliance with Russian laws," he said.
MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti)
Putin said that one of the former heads of the Yukos security service, convicted for murder, acted on the instructions of Yukos shareholders.
Alexei Pichugin, former Yukos security chief, was given a life prison sentence in 2007 for murdering a businessman and a Siberian oil town mayor, and for the attempted murder of another businessman.
