Government may go easier on Yukos

OAO Yukos Oil Co, battling to avert bankruptcy, said the Russian government may be considering ways to avoid a breakup of the company in settling a $7.5 billion tax bill. Shares of Yukos rose.

“We have submitted some proposals” to avert a sale of Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos’s main Siberian unit, chief executive officer Steven Theede said in an interview in London.