‘As Gazprom has been getting rid of its marginal assets, its executive Mr Miller ordered that all assets be sold. Thus, UralTransGas sold its 1% something shareholding to UralTransBank today,’ Chairman of UralTransBank JSC Valeriy Zavodov announced at the press conference.

‘UralFinance Bank, supposedly acting on behalf of some Moscow bank, was one of the bidders at this auction. To be able to take part in the auction, a bank has to have a guarantee from a highly capitalized bank, which was not the case with UralFinance. As all of the local banks refused to give it the guarantee, it applied to a bank in Moscow and was given it just before the deadline; at the auction, it kept offering bids until the price was three times the face value of the share holding.’

‘It’s a bit early for conclusions, but this could in some way be connected with the recent scandal involving this bank. It was probably an attempt of a takeover,’ Mr Zavodov said.