Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that the case involving the embattled Yukos oil company should be settled according to Russian law. "The Russian leadership has commented more than once on the Yukos situation, and it should develop according to Russian laws," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying. His comments followed a U.S. bankruptcy court ruling Thursday that granted Yukos' request for a temporary injunction to block the auction in Moscow on Sunday of the company's Yuganskneftegaz subsidiary, which produces about 60 percent of its oil. Asked to comment on the ruling, Lavrov said that "someone wanted to drum up tension and put the investment climate in Russia in doubt." "This is to a large measure an ideologized and politicized attempt to use the mass media for certain goals," he was quoted as saying. Earlier Friday, a senior Russian government official said that gas monopoly Gazprom, the state-favored, expected buyer, should heed a Houston court order banning it from bidding at the auction, Dow Jones Newswires reported. "Gazprom, as a worldwide company, can't ignore this judicial action," he said. "We have had precedents when western court rulings turned out to be a headache not only for businesses but also for the state." --more 1452 Local Time 1152 GMT
