bne -
The Kremlin is to appeal a decision ordering Russia to pay $50bn in damages to shareholders in former oil company Yukos, according to Tim Osborne, director of Group Menatep Limited, who represents the former shareholders.
"I can confirm that the Russian authorities have served papers commencing an action to have the ECT Arbitration Awards set aside. The case will be before the District Court in The Hague," Osborne told RAPSI news agency.
In July, the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded a total of $49.8bn damages to three former shareholders in Yukos in connection with the bankrupting of Yukos in 2004-2005, as a result of which the Yukos assets were renationalised and acquired by state-owned Rosneft, now Russia's largest oil company. Yukos was run by oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a political opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who was sentenced on organized crime charges to 10 years in jail. He was released early in December 2013.
The Kremlin is arguing that the arbitration panel was not entitled to consider the case. Russia's Finance Ministry has previously said the decision involved “biased interpretation of the evidence” and “unacceptable reversal of complex decisions made by Russian courts,” according to RAPSI.
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