By Alexander Koliandre BBC Russian service

Russia is due to auction off its last major oil company, Slavneft, on Wednesday.

The sale has been billed as the largest and most open privatisation in Russian history.

Slavneft is the country's eighth largest oil producer, pumping about 300,000 barrels of oil a day from its fields in western Siberia.

The company is associated with management problems, and hit the headlines when a leadership struggle ended with armed police storming the company's headquarters.

Fair contest

This privatisation is being hyped as the fairest Russia has ever seen. In the past other state companies were snatched up by the country's new breed of business oligarchs.

These well-connected billionaires paid a fraction of the market price for many assets in return for political support.

This time, it is expected that Slavneft will fetch a reasonably fair price at auction, probably somewhere around the starting figure of $1.7bn (�1.08bn).

Interest has been waning in the run-up to the sale.

Two major Russian companies pulled out last week, and the Chinese state-owned oil firm CNPC later also dropped out of the bidding.

Russian buyer

However, this does avert a potentially dangerous situation for the Kremlin. Russian politicians had been worried about state property passing into foreign hands, especially those of another government.

The most likely winner is Sibneft - a rapidly expanding Russian company which already owns a minority stake in Slavneft.

The proceeds of the Slavneft auction will go towards servicing Russia's foreign debts. The government is due to pay off $17bn this year.