Earlier, YUKOS issued a statement saying that the Basmanny District Court of Moscow seized RUR 76bn in assets from YUKOS’s key subsidiaries on August 31, at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia. The freeze blocked the accounts of the subsidiaries, depriving them of the opportunity to make payments, including wages, taxes, and current operating expenses.

“Given the unprecedented nature of the ruling”, YUKOS made the following statements. It said the motion had been filed in the context of a new criminal case, initiated by an investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office, Y.Tiutiunnik, and it was based on the “astounding assumption” that the funds in the accounts of YUKOS's enterprises, belonged to an individual - Irina Golub, General Director of YUKOS-FBC LLC. As it is legally impossible to file criminal charges against a legal entity, the General Prosecutor's Office brought tax evasion charges against one person - the manager of the company providing accounting services to YUKOS subsidiaries. Moreover, the investigators accuse her of misappropriating all of the RUR 76bn. The investigating authorities do not, however, charge Ms. Golub with embezzlement but claim that she kept the money "obtained by crime" in the subsidiaries' accounts.

The seizure could affect the financial situation and fuel social tension in the regions where the company operates – the Samara, Tomsk and Irkutsk regions and the Khanty-Mansiisk and Evenkia Autonomous Districts. It could also disrupt the supply of fuel and petroleum products to over 40 regions of the Russian Federation, YUKOS said in its statement. In this case, it stressed, the responsibility for possible consequences and suspended production would fully rest with the investigator who requested the seizure.

YUKOS management would take all possible measures, both in Russian and international courts, to protect the company and thousands of employees from the arbitrary acts of certain officials, YUKOS said.

On October 8, the Natural Resources Ministry will consider whether to revoke 26 oilfield licenses from Yuganskneftegaz, YUKOS’s main production subsidiary. On Tuesday this week, the Federal Tax Service submitted the findings of a repeat tax inspection for 2003 to the management of Yuganskneftegaz. The company is accused of evading RUR 27.8bn (including interest and fines).

Yuganskneftegaz is YUKOS’s largest oil production subsidiary, accounting for about 60 percent of its oil output. All of Yuganskneftegaz’s shares are frozen, as well as the assets of other YUKOS’s production subsidiaries –Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz. The freeze was imposed by court order as collateral against YUKOS’s RUR 99.4bn tax debt. Once Yuganskneftegaz’s assets are assessed by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, court bailiffs plan to put the company up for sale.