Yukos, once Russia’s leading oil company and a favorite of international investors, is in its death throes. At what many perceived to be a rigged auction, the company’s best assets were sold off to a previously unknown bidder and are now back in the hands of the Russian state. The shell of what remains continues to challenge the company’s fate, notably in a Houston, Texas courtroom. But these spasms will not revive the corpse. What matters now is whether Russia’s economy will share Yukos’s fate.
Yukos, once Russia’s leading oil company and a favorite of international investors, is in its death throes. At what many perceived to be a rigged auction, the company’s best assets were sold off to a previously unknown bidder and are now back in the hands of the Russian state. The shell of what remains continues to challenge the company’s fate, notably in a Houston, Texas courtroom. But these spasms will not revive the corpse. What matters now is whether Russia’s economy will share Yukos’s fate.