"My client has offered the Yukos Board that major Yukos shareholders' blocks meet government fiscal claims. It is up to Yukos alone to negotiate on those claims, he insists. If a letter proposing a remedy to settle Yukos back taxes was really sent to the government, there was every reason to refer [in it] to Mr. Khodorkovsky's offer," says the lawyer.
The Yukos founding father approved company managers as they addressed the federal government, yesterday, with more initiatives to keep the oil giant afloat. Back tax claims are snowballing, while they can be settled once and for all if control block holders cede their stock, entirely or in part, as the case may be, The Financial Times says in today's issue with reference to competent informants.
Khodorkovsky's letter has not yet reached the prime-ministerial secretariat, Alexander Zharov, press secretary to Premier Mikhail Fradkov, said to the media tonight.
