minister hits out at yukos sale russia s renationalisation of its energy industry needs to be reversed  a senior government figure has warned.  economy minister german gref told the kommersant newspaper that direct state involvement in oil was  unjustified . his comments follow the sale of much of oil giant yukos to cover back taxes - a deal which effectively took most of the firm s assets into public ownership. on 28 december  another senior economic adviser called the sale  the swindle of the century . yuganskneftegaz  the unit which produced 60% of yukos  output  had been seized and sold in december for less than $10bn to a previously unknown firm called baikal.  baikal promptly passed into the hands of state-controlled firm rosneft  itself shortly to merge with state gas giant gazprom.  we used to see street hustlers do this kind of thing   andrei illarionov - then economic adviser to president vladimir putin - told a press conference.  now officials are doing it.  within days  he was stripped of most of his responsibilities.  mr gref  a well-known opponent of nationalisation in competitive parts of the market  was keen to distance himself from mr iliaronov s comments. the privatisation of companies such as yukos in the 1990s had been badly handled  he said. but he stressed that the government needed to get out of oil.  i think that rosneft and yuganskneftegaz  should it become a state-owned company  must be privatized   he said.   today our government is ineffective and state companies  as a result  are for the overwhelming part ineffective as well.  and he warned that using back taxes to deal with firms like yukos - a technique now being applied by the kremlin to several other firms - was a mistake.  if we follow that logic  we should nationalise all businesses   he said. many large russian companies  particularly in the energy sector  use complex webs of offshore companies to avoid taxes.  mr gref also poured cold water on president putin s promises of doubled economic growth within a decade. the assault on yukos  assets has been widely blamed for a slowdown in economic growth in recent months.  the task is not simply to double gdp; instead it is to use gdp to qualitatively improve people s lives   mr gref told kommersant.  we don t need simply to increase gdp  but to improve its structure.  instead of focusing on headline growth figures  russia needed to focus on better institutions  such as a more efficient - and less corrupt - court system.