Rosneft Privatization Deal Beneficial to Russia - Kremlin

A recent agreement on the sale of 19.5-percent government stake in state-owned Rosneft oil company is beneficial to Russia as the revenue from the sale exceeds the minimal expected parameters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin informed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached to sell the government stake in the company to a consortium of mining group Glencore and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for 10.5 billion euros (some $11.3 billion).

However, Russia's Kommersant business daily has claimed citing own sources that the deal is not really advantageous for Moscow as the announced price was some 19 billion rubles ($303 million) less than mentioned in a government's directive.

"How come it is not beneficial? Some base parameters have been set, and the deal not only meets these parameters, it exceeds them," Peskov told RIA Novosti.

"It is certainly beneficial," he stressed.