Man Who Bought Main Yukos Subsidiary Decorated With Russia’s Major Order

Vice President of Rosneft oil company Nikolai Borisenko, who bought Yukos main subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz at an auction last year, has been decorated with the Order of Merit for the Motherland of II Grade, Izvestia daily reported.

Russian President awards the order for contributions to the development of the state and its economy, or to the development of good relations between nations. Borisenko, 49, represented a mysterious company Baikal Finance Group at the famous auction, while several days later it turned out that state-run Rosneft was the mastermind behind the deal.

Yuganskneftegaz, the main production asset of the embattled Yukos Oil Company, which accounted for 60 percent of its total output, was sold on Dec. 19, 2004. The hitherto unknown Baikal Finance Group offered to pay $9.37 billion for the asset and was declared the winner. All large Russian companies then denied any affiliation with Baikal Finance, prompting a lot of speculation.

As local media reported earlier, Putin was also going to award two judges in the Yukos trial, Anatoliy Antoshin and Andrei Grechishkin, the same order. Their colleague, an employee of the Moscow Arbitrage Nikolai Logunov, is to be decorated with the Order of Friendship, MosNews reported.