Shareholders of Russia's embattled Yukos oil firm elected a State Duma lawmaker as chairman of its board of directors Thursday in an effort to help rescue the largest Russian oil exporter from possible bankruptcy.

Viktor Gerashchenko, also former Central Bank chairman, was elected to the post with 84.6 percent of the votes during an annual Yukos meeting that picks new board of directors, Interfax news agency reported.

The shareholders appointed Steven Michael Theede, a former vicepresident of US oil major ConocoPhillips, as chief executive officer (CEO), replacing the Russian-born American Simon Kukes whocame to office after the detention of his predecessor Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of fraud and tax evasion late last year.

Yury Beilin was appointed as deputy CEO.

Yukos is facing a 3.4-billion-dollar tax bill claimed by the tax ministry which the company had warned could drive it into bankruptcy.

The months-long legal onslaught on Yukos and the jailing of several Yukos key shareholders including Khodorkovsky, founder of the company and Russia's richest man, has been seen by critics as a Kremllin-initiated move to baffle the oil tycoon's financial andpolitical clout.

Gerashchenko, 66, who has presented himself as a candidate to mediate between the government and the company, has forecast a "simple rescue plan" which involves negotiations offered by Yukos and a mutually acceptable compromise ensuring that the government will not raise "unrealistic requirements" to Yukos, Interfax reported.

The beleaguered Yukos sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov this month, offering to cooperate in settling the back taxes claim in exchange for the government not pushing it into bankruptcy.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin confirmed earlier this week thatcooperation on the possible settlement of the issue is underway, echoing President Vladimir Putin's view that the government does not want to see a company of Yukos' scale bankrupted.

Source: Xinhua