mos mosp 222 08 intjw mosj biz Putin praises oil company on its 10th anniversary
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin often offers congratulatory birthday greetings to Russian cultural figures, but on Tuesday the object of his praise was not a respected writer or beloved actor - it was the country's second-biggest oil company, Yukos.
Putin congratulated Yukos on the 10th anniversary of its founding, the Kremlin said.
"Competently employing modern scientific and technical achievements, Yukos is confidently moving on a trajectory of stable growth," a statement released by the Putin's press service quoted him as saying.
"The effective organization of labor, high professionalism and responsibility of its employees enables the company not only to retain but to broaden its positions in the domestic and external markets," he said.
Yukos is headed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who at the age of 39 was No. 26 - and first among Russians - on Forbes magazine's most recent list of the world's richest people with an estimated US$8 billion in wealth.
Russia's oil wealth has been a major factor in the economic growth it has experienced in the past few years, which has bolstered Putin's popularity among citizens of a country battered by instability in the decade before he took office.
Putin pledged to reduce the influence of businessmen who amassed great fortunes using political connections after the Soviet collapse, but many are still in place and critics say the campaign against them has been limited to a few whose media companies criticized the Kremlin.
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