LONDON, Aug 8 (AFP) - A consortium of Dubai-based investors is backing a 10-billion-dollar rescue plan for Russian oil company Yukos that has been made by a former associate of company founder and former CEO, Mikhail Khordokovsky, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.
"A consortium of Dubai-based investors has emerged as the mystery backer of a 10-billion-dollar (8.1-billion-euro) offer to save Yukos, the troubled Russian oil giant," the paper said.
"Members of Dubai's ruling Maktoum family are believed to have joined the bid fronted by Konstantin Kagalovsky, a former associate of Mikhail Khordokovsky, Yukos' largest shareholder.
Kagalovsky had written last month to Russian President Vladimir Putin offering -- on behalf of Khordokovsy and Yukos' second shareholder, Platon Lebedev -- to pay Yukos' outstanding taxes, which could amount to as much as 10 billion dollars, the paper said.
Kagalovsky had also offered 800 million dollars for any damages demanded by the state. He wanted Khordokovsky's stake in Yukos in return for the bailout, which had been proposed to Putin on behalf of a group of unnamed investors, it explained.
The Russian tax authorities are demanding around 10 billion dollars in back taxes from Yukos, which threatens to bankrupt the country's biggest oil exporter and interrupt oil deliveries -- spooking oil investors and driving up the price of the black gold in recent days.
Most analysts believe businessmen linked to the Kremlin will gain access to the main Yukos oil fields that are expected to be auctioned off within the next few weeks.