The European Court of Human Rights yesterday cleared Russia’s government of trying to destroy defunct oil giant Yukos in a ruling Moscow said proved its actions were not politically motivated.

Russia had not “misused” proceedings “with a view to destroying the company and taking control of its assets”, the court said in the judgment, which can be appealed within three months.

Moscow immediately hailed the outcome. But, judges at the Strasbourg-based court also found that Yukos’ fundamental rights were flouted on several counts in tax proceedings against it.

Yukos, once headed by jailed opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sought colossal damages of €72 billion over claims it was illegally targeted by the state over tax fraud.

Judges delayed their decision on damages – potentially the largest penalty ever awarded by the court – which could take several months or even years to rule on, according to a court spokesman.

The court ruled that the authorities violated the right to a fair trial in the European Convention on Human Rights by giving the company insufficient time to prepare its defence case in 2000 tax assessment proceedings.

And the court also ruled that there had been a further breach regarding the imposition and calculation of tax penalties.

However, it added that “there was no indication of any further issues or defects in the proceedings against Yukos which would have enabled the court to conclude that Russia had misused those proceedings to destroy Yukos and take control of its assets.”

Former officials at Yukos, dissolved in 2007, also welcomed the ruling.

“The issues that we lost on are not the critical issues,” Bruce Misamore, Yukos’ former chief financial officer told reporters in London, adding the political issues of the ruling were “cosmetic”.

Steven Theede, Yukos’ former chief executive officer who resigned in 2006 and led the suit against Russia in Strasbourg, also expressed satisfaction.“The court found the crux of the case was the speed with which the Russian authorities demanded that Yukos pay the taxes, despite the fact its assets were frozen,” he said.