Rosneft calls Khodorkovsky comments on Sistema owner arrest ‘absurd’

MOSCOW: Russia's top oil producer Rosneft said comments by ex-Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky linking the house arrest of a the owner of Sistema to Rosneft's interests in the conglomerate's oil assets as "absurd", RIA news agency reported.

"I don't understand why Rosneft has something to do with that? This is absurd," the news agency quoted a Rosneft spokesman as saying on Wednesday. Khodorkovsky, in an interview with Vedomosti business daily, alleged that Rosneft's head, Igor Sechin, was behind the house arrest of Sistema's owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov.