Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 31 2021

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Yukos shareholders claim $5bn

appeal award from Russia

RUSSIA THE Permanent Court of Arbitration in The $27bn in back taxes. In October of that year its
Hague has awarded Yukos Capital $5bn in com- owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s
Yukos was once pensation in its case against Russia, including richest man, was arrested on charges of fraud
Russia's biggest oil interest and legal costs, RBC business portal and put in prison.
producer. reported on July 29 citing an announcement Moscow is widely seen as having instigated
from the shareholders of the dismantled Russian Yukos’ downfall in order to reassert its control
oil giant Yukos. over the oil industry. Specifically, the Kremlin
Reportedly, the case concerns the loans objected to Khodorkovsky’s plans to build a
between Yukos Capital and Yukos, and is sepa- privately owned oil pipeline from Siberia to
rate from the over $50bn case being pursued by northern China that the state considered the
former shareholders of Yukos, a more than dec- prerogative of the government and foreign pol-
ade-old legal battle followed by bne IntelliNews. icy. Khodorkovsky was also accused of bribing
Initially Yukos Capital claimed $13bn in many deputies in the Duma and Federation
damages in the "second wave" of cases against council to give him influence over the political
Russia that followed the first cases in Dutch process.
courts. Yukos Capital claims that loans issued to The Permanent Court of Arbitration of The
Yukos and its subsidiaries had not been repaid Hague in 2014 concluded that the Kremlin had
after the bankruptcy and the liquidation of the staged a co-ordinated attack on Yukos in order
private oil major. to bring its assets back under state control, and
Yukos was once Russia’s biggest oil producer ordered Russia to pay $50bn in compensation to
and briefly its most valuable company, having shareholders.
accumulated a number of major Siberian oil- Two years later, the District Court of The
fields during privatisation deals in the 1990s, Hague overturned this ruling, claiming the arbi-
including the controversial loans-for-shares tration judges had no jurisdiction in the case,
scheme. The company’s fortunes changed in as Russia had never ratified the Energy Charter
2003, when the government accused it of owing Treaty protecting international investment. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 03•August•2021