French Court Lifts Account Freezes Against Russian Aerospace Companies

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — French court has lifted freezes from funds on the accounts in the country's banks of three Russian federal state unitary enterprises working in the sphere of space research and production, as well of construction of infrastructure for space launches, the director general of the International Center for Legal Protection told Sputnik.

"The court has lifted an attachment of assets of three Russia's federal state unitary enterprises," Andrei Kondakov said Monday, adding that this decision was the eighth one lifting the attachments of Russian state enterprises.

According to Kondakov, the accounts of such companies, as the Lavochkin Research and Production Association aerospace company and Center for Operation of Space Ground-Based Infrastructure (TsENKI), have been frozen by the French side following lawsuits from ex-shareholders of the now defunct Yukos oil company.

The assets of Russian state space companies, including of the country's space corporation Roscosmos, have been repeatedly blocked in France, following the former Yukos shareholders' lawsuits. However, the courts have also repeatedly lifted the freezes from such funds.