Russia's backroom oil deal plot thickens

The plot thickens over the mysterious backroom deals that have quietly handed the Kremlin control of the embattled Yukos oil giant’s most important production unit – an apparently secret, no-bid sale to Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft.

ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported that Rosneft had bought 100% of shares in the virtually unknown BaikalFinansGroup, in a deal yesterday that appeared to move the unit one step closer to ownership by state-controlled gas giant Gazprom.