WASHINGTON, October 25 (RIA Novosti, Arkady Orlov) - Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, who is currently in Washington, was summoned to attend a hearing Monday on a suit filed by minority shareholders of the Russian embattled oil giant Yukos at the Court of the District of Columbia, the shareholders' lawyer said Tuesday.
Thomas Johnson, Jr., a partner with Covington and Burling representing the interests of U.S. shareholders in Yukos, announced the subpoena at a press conference in the U.S. capital.
Twelve U.S. Yukos shareholders filed a lawsuit in Washington Monday against the Russian government and Russian companies. TV channel NBC previously said that the lawsuit asserted that the defendants illegally conspired with the aim of "nationalizing Yukos without paying compensation to the company's owners."
Covington and Burling's letter filing the lawsuit specifies that the defendants are the Russian Federation, companies owned by the Russian state, certain leaders of these companies, and Russian officials.
The text of the 67-page lawsuit lists the defendants as Alexei Miller, Alexei Kudrin, Farit Gazizzulin, Igor Yusufov, Sergei Bogdanchikov, Viktor Khristenko, Nikolai Borisenko, the Russian Ministry of Justice, the consulting department of the Russian government in Washington, and Baikalfinansgroup.
Johnson said trying the case in an American court would set a precedent for holding the Russian government and Russian oil and gas executives accountable for violating shareholders' rights stipulated in U.S. securities legislation.
NBC quoted Tuesday's edition of The Financial Times, which cast doubt on the outcome of the suit because complaints brought against foreign governments have little precedent in U.S. courts.
