State Duma asks PM to clarify deal on LUKoil shares

The State Duma has made a request to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in connection with the selling of the government's stake in LUKoil.

The document, approved by the lower house today, reads that the Project Privatization Company was established for this deal on December 31, 2002, which placed 5.9% of the government's shares in LUKoil on the London Exchange at the end of 2002. According to media reports, the value of the deal was $775m. The money received from this deal has not been received by the federal budget yet. In this connection, lawmakers asked Kasyanov to give them information on the parameters of this deal and the procedure for selling the shares.

Additionally, the Duma is interested in the distribution of revenues from selling these shares between the federal budget, the Russian Federal Property Fund and other participants of the deal, as well as the reason for the delay in transferring the funds and the date of their deposit into the federal budget. The lower house requested that the Prime Minister provide information on the use of funds received from selling the shares since the end of 2002.

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