It is a monumental game of attack and counterattack, a global struggle with stakes of $50 billion. Former shareholders in Yukos, the now defunct oil firm, prowl most of the world looking for cash, shares and property belonging to the Russian state, which they then try to seize. Moscow, meanwhile, plays defense, assiduously veiling its assets and threatening to retaliate whenever one is found.
The story begins in 2014, which is when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded $50 billion in compensation to Yukos' former owners. The court agreed that Russian authorities had destroyed the company through punitive tax claims in the early 2000s after its chief, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, fell out with President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.
But on April 20, Yukos hit a snag, when a Dutch court overturned the award, saying the arbitrators had exceeded their authority. Yukos shareholders vowed to continue to fight for asset seizures and appeal the ruling — a process which will take years.
The win strengthens Russia's position in the cat and mouse game. Andrei Kondakov, the official in charge of coordinating the country's counterattacks on Yukos, pledged to "fight in every court and every jurisdiction, knowing we have the facts, the rule of law, justice and now this decision on our side."
Read the article written by ©Peter Hobson, clicking HERE
INC News, 23/04/2016 - source: ©MoscowTime News
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