MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is showing no intention of reaching a legal agreement with Yukos shareholders, the head of Group Menatep Limited (GML), which unites former owners of the defunct oil company, told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
On July 18, The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that Russia must pay to GML $50 billion, for expropriating the company's assets. Moscow said it would appeal the ruling by an arbitration panel in the Netherlands, adding that The Hague's Arbitration Court had no jurisdiction to review the shareholders' claims because the Russian Federation has not ratified the Energy Charter Treaty.
"GML remains ready to talk to the Russian Federation but to date the Russian Federation has shown no interest in talking to us," Tim Osborne stated.
No one outside Russia is taking Moscow's statements seriously that the Yukos arbitration award should be ignored as illegal, the GML head said, adding that Rosneft and Gazprom are irrelevant to this case.
In 2003, Russian authorities accused the leadership of Yukos, once the largest oil company in the country, of economic crimes. A range of Yukos managers were convicted for fraud and tax evasion. Yukos was later declared bankrupt and the state-controlled oil company Rosneft bought the bulk of its assets.
Yukos' managers contended that the Russian government illegally forced the oil firm out of business and bankrupted it, which allowed Rosneft to snap up its assets and become Russia's largest oil producer.
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent a decade in prison for fraud and tax evasion until he was pardoned in December 2013.
