VEB.RF says to continue fighting for Ukrainian unit in Stockholm

MOSCOW, Jun 11 (PRIME) – A recusal of a judge in Russia’s VEB.RF’s suit against privatization of its Ukrainian branch is a result of intimidation and the state development corporation will turn to the Stockholm Arbitration Court, VEB.RF said in a statement on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Kiev Court of Appeal held a ninth hearing of VEB.RF’s request to recognize and enforce a Stockholm Arbitration Court’s ruling that prohibited Ukraine from selling the shares in Prominvestbank owned by VEB.RF.

“No less than 15 people in military uniforms came to the June 10 hearing. They intimidated the judge with their actions and statements about the impossibility to satisfy the request of the Russian corporation. As a result, the judge decided to recuse in spite of making an opposite decision a day earlier. Now the court will have to start the trial that has been going on for almost year, anew,” VEB.RF said quoting Senior Vice President Igor Krasnov.

“It is a shame that law-breakers are able to intimidate honest judges in the middle of modern Kiev defiantly and without any obstruction, the judges who fulfill their professional duty honorably and who are not ready to ignore the decisions made against Ukraine by international courts indefinitely. These actions of Ukraine confirm that it is impossible to achieve a fair and unbiased trial on the territory of Ukraine. As an investor, we only can counteract actively the legal despotism of the Ukrainian authorities in the investment case.”

In the spring of 2018, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague supported the companies of tycoon Igor Kolomoisky and obliged Russia to redeem about U.S. $140 million of their losses in Crimea. In September of 2018, a Kiev court arrested shares of Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russia’s state-owned banks Sberbank, VTB Bank, and VEB.RF.

In January 2019, the Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld decisions of the lower courts, but said that only property of the Russian Federation can be arrested under the case, while the property owned by other companies should not be arrested.

In March 2020, VEB.RF said that Ukraine had sold the shares of Prominvestbank to an unknown buyer in an auction in violation of international law. VEB.RF planned to protect its interests in the court.

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