MOSCOW — Analysts with Veles Capital believe that new claims filed against YUKOS by its former subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz, presently controlled by Rosneft, are obviously disputable, though they have certain grounds. The court may reject the disgraced oil company's arguments that its accounts were frozen, and oblige it to pay off this debt. Since YUKOS has no money, Rosneft (through Yuganskneftegas) may initiate bankruptcy proceedings and obtain necessary YUKOS assets as repayment of the debt.

Uralsib analysts also think that Rosneft wants to obtain new assets of YUKOS. The government's pressure on YUKOS is not growing any weaker, and creditors and minority shareholders are filing suits against the company. Taking this into account, YUKOS's assets are likely to be sold, analysts believe.

As reported earlier, Sergey Oganesian, chief of Russia's federal energy agency, did not rule out the possibility of YUKOS's assets being sold. He sad the first two candidates were the company's subsidiaries Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz.