Court rejects Oboronenergo’s suit against Defense Ministry

MOSCOW, Aug 26 (PRIME) - The Moscow Arbitration Court has dismissed a suit of JSC Oboronenergo, which demanded to recover about 1.7 billion rubles from the Russian Defense Ministry and its subordinate Central Territorial Administration of Property Relations, the court said on Thursday.

Oboronenergo transmits and distributes electricity and supplies power to the military units and other organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, its sole owner.

A Defense Ministry spokesman told PRIME that non-contractual electricity consumption was stated as the reason for the claim. According to the plaintiff, such consumption was detected at the military facilities in Tver and in Korolyov, Naro-Fominsk, and Solnechnogorsk near Moscow in 2017-2019.

“The Defense Ministry of Russia claimed that the statute of limitations has been missed and also that the plaintiff did not send the acts of alleged violations to the Defense Ministry and the ministry did not participate in their preparation,” Defense Ministry lawyer Margarita Krivosheina said. PRIME has no comment of the plaintiff.

The transfer of the Defense Ministry’s grid assets, concentrated in Oboronenergo, for repayment of Oboronenergosbyt’s debts for electricity transmission has been under discussion since 2016. In 2017, the Energy Ministry stated that it supports the transfer of grid assets to Rosseti for debts.

(74.1775 rubles – U.S. $1)

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