KIEV (Sputnik) – The State Savings Bank of Ukraine, Oschadbank, filed an International Court of Arbitration lawsuit to recover $1 billion in Crimean assets, the bank said on its website Friday.
"Oschadbank filed a lawsuit with the entire evidence base today, August 26. The sum of the claims includes the loss of assets, loss of business costs and interest to be credited before the tribunal’s final ruling and before the actual receipt of payment at the commercial rate determined by the tribunal, totaling over $1 billion," it said.
The statement says the lawsuit is the fourth step in the recovery of its assets in Crimea. The bank said it had sent a complaint letter to local Russian authorities as part of the first step, followed by choosing the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP firm to represent it, then notifying the permanent chamber of the formation of an arbitration tribunal.
Crimea joined Russia after a March 2014 referendum in which over 96 percent of the Black Sea peninsula's population voted in favor of the move.