Ukraine wants to seize foreign property of Gazprom after fine

KIEV, Jun 20 (PRIME) – Ukraine is preparing requests to collect a $3.4 billion antimonopoly fine imposed on Russian gas giant Gazprom from its foreign property, Justice Minister Pavel Petrenko said on Tuesday at a briefing.

“We are now working out a mechanism of legal execution of the decision for the countries that have a treaty on legal assistance with us. We are holding consultations at this stage. I would not (name) the countries that will be the first to receive these documents after we have finished the search for (Gazprom) assets in Ukraine,” he said.

He also said that Kiev does not plan to take off Gazprom’s natural gas that the company transits to the E.U. through Ukraine as it would violate Kiev’s obligations under contracts with the E.U.

The Ukrainian antimonopoly committee imposed the fine in 2015 to punish Gazprom for its monopolist position on the gas transit market. In October 2016, the fine increased to $6.4 billion for a jeopardized payment. Gazprom contested the fine as it does not operate on the market of Ukraine, but all appeals were futile.

In May, Kiev seized a 40% stake in Gazprom’s local company Gaztransit and on Tuesday wrote off U.S. $3.1 million off its dividends as part of the fine.

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