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Russia to pay $50 bn over Yukos, Dutch court rules

18.02.2020 14:15
A Dutch appeals court has reinstated an order for Russia to pay $50 billion in compensation to shareholders in the former oil giant Yukos, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Tuesday.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of oil company Yukos, pictured in 2017
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of oil company Yukos, pictured in 2017DPA/Sophia Kembowski

In 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that the Russian authorities had illegally taken control of Yukos by imposing excessive taxes which led to the company’s bankruptcy in 2006.

Yukos assets were then taken over by Russian state-owned company Rosneft.

The court in 2014 also ordered Moscow to compensate Yukos shareholders.

In 2016, The Hague’s District Court decided that the Permanent Court of Arbitration had no right to issue judgments in this case and overturned the 2014 ruling. 

But The Hague Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the 2016 decision “was not correct."

According to the Reuters news agency, the Russian ministry of justice has announced that it will appeal the verdict.

(jh/pk)

Source: PAP