The proceeds from the sale of assets of...
"Of these funds, we formed the housing and utilities fund, with a budget of 240 billion rubles [$8 billion at the current exchange rate]," Putin said during his annual TV and radio phone-in.
Yukos was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over the company"s tax arrears and formally ceased to exist in November 2007, after its assets had been sold off through a series of liquidation auctions to meet vast creditor claims. State oil company Rosneft bought up the lion"s share of the production assets, becoming Russia"s largest oil producer.
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. He has consistently denied all charges against him, saying he was punished for supporting the tiny pro-Western opposition, and that the liquidation of Yukos was engineered by corrupt government officials aiming to seize lucrative oil assets.