Spokesman: Russian Minister Not Summoned By U.S. Court

Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin (file photo) (ITAR-TASS) 13 January 2006 -- A spokesman for Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin has denied a media report that the minister was summoned to appear in U.S. court in a lawsuit brought by shareholders of Yukos.

The "Financial Times" newspaper said Kudrin was served with the lawsuit on 12 January while going into a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow in Washington.

The daily said that in October Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko was served with a similar summons. It says Russian officials at first denied the incident but that Khristenko later retained a Washington law firm to represent him in the case.

The "Financial Times" says the suit alleges that both ministers as well as the Russian Federation violated U.S. securities laws by falsely assuring the public the Kremlin did not intend to renationalize the oil company.

(ITAR-TASS, Interfax, "Financial Times")