MOSCOW: Russia’s oil giant Rosneft has increased its damage claim in a lawsuit against AFK Sistema holding company from 106.6 billion ($1.9 billion) to 170.6 billion rubles ($3 billion at the current exchange rate), RIA Novosti reported Wednesday citing spokesperson of Rosneft Mikhail Leontyev. The plaintiff revised the claim damage upwards taking into account currency fluctuations, according to the company’s representative. In early May, the Commercial Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan registered the lawsuit lodged by Rosneft and Bashneft demanding 106.6 billion rubles from Sistema and set the hearing for June 6.
Press service of Rosneft earlier said that the claim is connected with alleged siphoning of assets. Actions of AFK Sistema allegedly led to decrease of assets at this sum. According to AFK Sistema, the plaintiffs’ demands are illegal and groundless. Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. The company was privatized in 2009, when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema gained control of it. A court in Moscow ruled that Bashneft had been privatized in violation of law. The Prosecutor General’s Office brought a suit to return a 71.6 percent stake in Bashneft to the government. The Moscow Commercial Court ruled on October 30, 2014, in favor of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
