MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) — The Russian Justice Ministry appealed the ruling by the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday obliging Russia to pay almost 1.9 billion euro ($2.4 billion) in compensation to former Yukos shareholders.
"On October 29, 2014, the Ministry of Justice sent an appeal to the ECHR on the revision by the Grand Chamber of the earlier Yukos ruling by the lower court," the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, on October 9, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said Russia would appeal the ruling issued by the ECHR by October 30 and most likely appeal The Hague Court ruling.
Following the appeal by Yukos managers, the ECHR and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague have ruled against Russia in a lawsuit filed by the former shareholders of the now-defunct oil giant Yukos, and awarded them compensation of 1.9 billion euro and some $50 billion, respectively.
The company's managers contended that the Russian government had illegally forced the oil company out of business, which allowed Rosneft to snap up its assets and become the country's largest oil producer.
Yukos, a defunct oil company previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was declared bankrupt by a Moscow court of arbitration back in 2006. Khodorkovsky spent a decade in prison for fraud and tax evasion until he was pardoned in December 2013.
