More than 75% of the beleaguered Yukos oil company’s 2000 tax debt has been recovered from the company, a Russian Justice Ministry official was quoted as saying today.

Russia expects beleaguered oil giant Yukos to pay its crushing back taxes bill within a month, a Justice Ministry official said today in an apparent indication that the company’s feared collapse is not imminent.

Russia’s richest man, ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that could jail him for 10 years, while authorities tightened the grip on the beleaguered oil company’s key production assets.