Deja Vu or I've heard that before...

Doubts about gas deal quickly flare
Reuters

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2006

The accord uses RosUkrEnergo as middleman. It is a little-known Swiss-based joint venture owned half by Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom and half by Austria's Raiffeisen Zentralbank.

Sources familiar with the five-year gas deal say Raiffeisen is representing a group of mainly Ukrainian investors, but their identity is shrouded in secrecy."We represent a group of international investors knowledgeable in the gas business who don't want to reveal their identity,"

Wolfgang Putschek, of the Austrian bank's investment arm, told Reuters by telephone from Vienna.

DECEMBER 21, 2004 -- MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the auction of Yukos's main operating unit was conducted in accordance with Russian law and that the Chinese state oil company might be involved in the future operations of the unit, reported the Associated Press.

Putin also said that the company representatives who had won the auction were private individuals who had worked many years in the energy sphere, the Interfax news agency reported. His comments at a news conference in Germany came two days after Yukos's core Yuganskneftegaz unit was sold at auction to a mystery bidder for $9.3 billion.