Russia says it will go ahead with an auction to sell the key asset of embattled oil company Yukos despite a US bankruptcy court decision to block it for several days.
"We are selling Yugansk by order of a bailiff and so far we haven't received any order to cancel the auction [on Sunday]. Therefore, we are still planning to continue," a spokesman for the Federal Property Fund said on Friday.
Russia has said the US court, where Yukos made a surprise bankruptcy protection filing on Tuesday, has no jurisdiction over the sale.
The government has ordered the auction of Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos's main production unit, to repay some of the $27.5 billion it says Yukos owes in back taxes.
Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, expected to win the auction whose starting price is $8.5 billion, said it would participate despite the U. court decision to block it for 10 days.
The US court in Houston said the ruling applied to Gazprom and a syndicate of Western banks that was to finance the purchase.
Yukos's problems are widely seen to be part of the Kremlin's wish to crush the political ambitions of the company's key shareholder, Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is on trial for fraud and tax evasion.