Gazprom's purchase of Russian oil firm Sibneft from Roman Abramovich for $13 billion has left everyone wondering who will get to cash the cheque.
"The really interesting question is who exactly is getting richer by $13 billion?" said one Moscow-based economist. "Who actually owns the stakes in Sibneft? We don't have a clue."
The takeover, Russia's biggest, will pique the interest of Kremlinologists, investors, private banks, oil markets and football fans, plus inhabitants of a remote Siberian province.
But it is not known where holding company Millhouse Capital will pay tax on its windfall, how much of the cash will go to Mr Abramovich, or who the other beneficiaries will be.
The renationalisation of Sibneft draws to a close one of the murkiest episodes of the 1990s privatisations when a handful of oligarchs picked up state assets at bargain prices.
Mr Abramovich, also governor of Russia's remote Siberian region of Chukotka, has liquidated most of his Russian assets and spends much of his time in London, where the Sunday Timesnewspaper has named him Britain's richest man.
The deal represents a very poor return for the Russian taxpayer, since Mr Abramovich snapped up Sibneft for just $100 million nearly a decade ago.
"Russians are sitting in their homes without gas, and Gazprom says it has no money. How come it has billions of dollars to buy Sibneft?" asked a commentator on Moscow's outspoken Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Gazprom has yet to say when the deal will close or what happens next with Sibneft, where Yukos also owns a 20 per cent stake and minority shareholders own the balance.