MOSCOW, April 14: The supervisory manager of crippled Russian oil company Yukos said on Friday he had filed suit in a US bankruptcy court seeking to stop the firm’s London-based management selling a Lithuanian refinery.

Eduard Rebgun, appointed by a Moscow bankruptcy court, said a Manhattan judge had issued a 10-day freeze under Chapter 15 of the US bankruptcy code against the sale of Mazeikiu Nafta, the biggest business in the Baltic states.

“In accordance with my application, the Federal Court of New York has imposed a temporary ban in relation to actions by the management of NK Yukos and its subsidiaries and affiliates to dispose of assets,” Rebgun told Reuters.

But Yukos’s London-based CEO Steven Theede said in a letter to Rebgun that OAO NK Yukos was not involved in the sale of the refinery, which he says is controlled by Yukos International UK B.V., a subsidiary of Yukos Finance B.V., a Dutch-based firm.

Analysts have long said the death of Yukos is certain after officials froze its Russian assets and demanded $33bn in tax, and only its 53.7pc Mazeikiu stake remains in play.