MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI) – Igor Sechin, president of state-run oil company Rosneft , sees no risks for the company in terms of possible claims on behalf of ex-YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

YUKOS, once the country's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt and its assets were taken over by Rosneft. In 2004 Rosneft acquired the controlling stake in the former YUKOS subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz, which was by that time its key oil producing asset. Later Rosneft got embroiled into litigation over Yuganskneftegaz debts. Thus, Yukos Capital, another former YUKOS subsidiary, has been seeking the execution of a decision issued in 2006 by the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's International Commercial Arbitration Court to recover 13 million rubles ($418 million) in Yuganskneftegaz debts under four loan agreements.

“We see no risks for the company. Alternatively, from my point of view, the fact that Mikhail Borisovich (Khodorkovsky) has filed a (pardon) petition enhances the legal grounds for the interests of the defense,” the agency quoted Sechin as having said after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin signed a decree Friday Khodorkovsky who spent more than 10 years behind bars after having been convicted twice for tax evasion, money-laundering and oil embezzlement.

Russian Federal Penitentiary Service stated that Khodorkovsky was hereby released from serving out his sentence further.

The YUKOS case has been one of the most high profile in Russia in recent years. In the early 2000s, the authorities accused Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev of economic crimes. The arrests and trials of a number of other company members soon followed.