Putin Says State Firms Can Buy Yukos Assets.

(From The Moscow Times)

State-controlled companies have every right to bid for Yukos assets if they are sold to pay off the firm's whopping tax debt, although the government is not seeking to nationalize the company, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"If it comes to a sell-off of ... assets ... [then] any company -- including that with state capital in it -- can certainly take part. But, I repeat, there was no, there is no and there will be no plan for [Yukos'] nationalization or the state assuming control of it," Putin told journalists in Moscow.

Yukos is facing a sell-off of its key production unit Yuganskneftegaz, which produces about …