In the first sign that the government might compromise to save the Yukos oil company from bankruptcy over back taxes, Russian news agencies reported today that the Cabinet was considering a Yukos proposal to pay £5bn (€7.5bn) over a three-year period.

Russia’s richest man, oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, appeared in a Moscow court today for the first substantive hearing in a case that threatens to bring down the business empire he built.