based bank rating agency. "I find it very unlikely that any bank would make a decision to lend on the basis of credit risk, but political considerations will be more important." Analysts said that if the banks went ahead with funding it would be for purely political reasons _ as a result of diplomatic pressure not to pull the plug or fears that their business in Russia could be hurt. While the financial justification for lending to two energy cash-cows like Yuganskneftegaz and Gazprom is unassailable, for Deutsche Bank _ Germany's biggest bank _ the political considerations are very important. In 2003 Gazprom sent 28 percent of its European gas exports to Germany, its biggest customer. Gazprom supplies more than 25 percent of Europe's gas. Selling Yuganskneftegaz would reduce Yukos, Russia's largest oil company, to a shadow of its former self. Yukos currently pumps nearly one-fifth of all of Russia's oil. Yukos and its subsidiaries face more than US$27 billion (¤20 billion) in back tax claims that observers say are aimed at neutralizing political activities of its former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been jailed for 14 months, and transferring control of Yukos' key assets to government-friendly companies.
