"The Svea Court of Appeal overturned the Stockholm arbitration tribunal's decision on the lawsuit of Spanish shareholders against Russia. The appeal ordered the Spanish minority shareholders to pay Russia legal costs amounting to around $3.3 million," Andrei Kondakov, the director general of the International Center for Legal Protection, said.
The case dated back to 2007, when Yukos' Spanish investors, including GBI 9000 SICAV S.A., Orgor de Valores SICAV S.A., Quasar de Valores SICAV S.A. and ALOS 34 S.L., filed a lawsuit against Russia on the basis of a 1990 deal between the Soviet Union and Spain regarding the encouragement and mutual protection of investment, the lawyer explained.
The lawsuit was filed with an arbitration court under the auspices of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, commonly referred to as the Stockholm arbitration tribunal, Kondakov added.
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However, Russia appealed the Stockholm arbitration tribunal’s ruling in the Stockholm District Court and the Svea Court of Appeal.
"The final cancellation [of the ruling] by the court of appeals has demonstrated that it was legally unfounded and lacked legitimate reasons [to sustain the lawsuit] of the Spanish minority shareholders of Yukos," Kondakov pointed out.
The lawyer emphasized that all the rulings in the so-called first wave of legal actions against Russia in the Yukos case, which was initiated in the 2000s, had been revoked.
In 2017, the Hague Court of Appeal rejected a plea to bifurcate hearings by former Yukos shareholders. The shareholders wanted the court first to decide on whether Russia was bound by a multilateral treaty applicable to the arbitration case before proceeding with hearings on the appeal. Russia opposed the request, calling it a delaying tactic.
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