Andrei Illarionov accused the Russian state of “incompetent interference in the economy” and claimed that Russia had joined the Third World.

His comments came as Yukos, the embattled oil company, said that it would pursue all legal means to recover damages in excess of $20 billion (£10.3 billion) from anyone involved in the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, the key production unit of Yukos, claiming that the auction was a violation of US bankruptcy protection.

Mr Illarionov said: “A transition has been made to the interventionist trend. This model implies the state’s extremely incompetent interference in the economy.”

He accused Russia of abandoning the path to economic liberalism and refused to rule out other companies suffering the same fate as Yukos.

Mr Illarionov gave warning that government meddling would slow Russia’s fast economic growth, adding that Mr Putin’s aim of doubling Russia’s gross domestic product in ten years was not possible in a “populist and interventionist” political context.

The bitter outburst comes just days after the state auctioned Yuganskneftegaz after the company was hit by a crippling $27 billion tax bill imposed by the Russian Federation. “We used to see street hustlers do this kind of thing,” Mr Illarionov said. “Now officials are doing it.”

President Putin has battled to restore government control over energy assets that were privatised by Boris Yeltsin, his predecessor.

Mr Putin claims that this year has been successful for the Russian economy and that the state handled Yukos in a legal fashion.

Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, which is to merge with Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas group, last week bought Baikal Finance Group, which had earlier bought Yuganskneftegaz.

The takeover meant that a big slice of Russia’s oil industry has effectively been renationalised. Yuganskneftegaz produces over 10 per cent of Russia’s oil output.

Mr Illarionov said that the $10 billion used to buy Yugansk could only have come from state funds. “The money was taken from the citizens of this country,” he said.

The attack on Yukos by Kremlin officials has already seen Mikhail Khodorkovsky, its former chief executive, held on charges of tax evasion. Yesterday Mr Khodorkovsky accused the Kremlin of “senseless actions”. Speaking from jail, he told the newspaper Vedomosti that there was almost no chance of saving Yukos after the Yugansk sale.

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