The Chinese government denied that it had provided loans to the Russian government to fund its purchase of a key subsidiary of the troubled oil giant Yukos. The statement follows reports earlier in the week, including in the state-run Xinhua news agency, and comments from the Russian Finance Minister that China has provided US$6bn to Russian state oil firm Rosneft to finance the purchase of gas firm Yuganskneftegaz. However Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a briefing in Beijing that China had not provided any such loans to the Russian oil company.