Italian Firms Spend $5.8Bn in Kremlin's Yukos Auction ; BUSINESS

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Two of Italy's largest energy giants, Eni and Enel, have courted controversy by spending around $5.8bn ([pound]2.9bn) buying up prime assets in the bankrupt oil firm Yukos in a Kremlin auction. The assets, that once belonged to the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were labelled as "stolen goods" by the incarcerated man's lawyers who argued that the government illegally expropriated them and urged foreign buyers to steer clear.

The businessman's supporters argue that Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year jail term in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion, was the victim of an illegal Kremlin campaign designed to strip him of his assets and punish him for his …