Russia's prime minister said today he was deeply concerned by the freezing of shares in oil giant YUKOS - the closest any top official has come to publiclycriticising the Kremlin's handling of the crisis. "I will refrain from any assessment but my concern isgreat," Prime Minister Mr Mikhail Kasyanov was shown saying onRussia's NTV channel, a day after prosecutors blocked a largestake in YUKOS and a top presidential aide quit in protest.
The escalating confrontation between the Kremlin and YUKOShas presented President Mr Vladimir Putin with his biggestpolitical and economic crisis in three years in power and raisedfears over the future of economic reforms.
Political commentators see it as a drive by Kremlin hawks toquash YUKOS boss Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky's political ambitions andreassert the state's authority over business.
Russian markets regained some ground after Mr Putin restatedhis commitment to a market economy. But shares were still farbelow levels before the arrest at gunpoint of Mr Khodorkovsky -Russia's richest man - on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
Just hours after prosecutors froze a major stake in YUKOSheld by Mr Khodorkovsky and his allies, Mr Putin met a group ofhigh-ranking foreign bankers at a lavish Kremlin hall. They saidtoday he had pledged to press ahead with reform, includingof state-owned Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company.
The prosecutor's office said today it had lifted thefreeze on two per cent of Yukos shares which it said belonged toindividuals not related to criminal investigations.