The banks, Unexim, Menatep and Most, announced on August 25th that they are merging.
Perhaps the Kremlin will not be satisfied until Menatep has divested itself of everything it owns.
Menatep might also sell some shares in Yukos, so it can repay the firm's debts.
Menatep could easily pull the trigger by calling in its own loan to Yukos.
One bank, Menatep, closed, only to reopen as a new, debt-free, legal entity based in St Petersburg.
And perhaps the only way to force Menatep to do that is by threatening to render everything it owns worthless.
Or perhaps, after Mr Putin's reassurances last month, Menatep became stubborn again.
The official explanation is that the move combines their strengths: Unexim in investment banking, Menatep in lending to companies, and Most in retail banking.
Until recently, most assumed that the Kremlin would persuade or force Menatep, the firm that represents Yukos's main shareholders, to let go of Yukos while leaving Yukos itself relatively unharmed.
Nevertheless, any likely penalties may not be enough to make much of a dent in Menatep's shareholding in Yukos unless the value of this were to fall a lot further.
Speculation centres on which assets Yukos will be forced to sell, and whether the process will end up prising control of Yukos away from jailed ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky's investment firm Menatep Group.
And if, alternatively, Menatep were to step in as a guarantor for Yukos's debts, says Adam Landes at Renaissance, the government would only be able to grab Menatep's shares in Yukos if the oil company did go bankrupt.
For a while now, this attack has had the look of a concerted plan to leave the company's main shareholder, Group Menatep (which holds more than 60% of Yukos and which is in turn controlled by Mr Khodorkovsky), with less than a 25% blocking stake, if any at all.
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