The Stockholm arbitration court ordered the authorities to compensate a number of Spanish investors of Yukos Oil Company for $2.7 million in losses they suffered as a result of the company's bankruptcy, Marnie Chick, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, which represented the interests of the plaintiffs, told RAPSI . The decision was made on July 25, the law firm said.

The lawsuit was filed in 2007 by several Spanish investment funds - holders of YUKOS ADRs, including Quasar de Valores, Renta 4 and others.

Investors refer to an investment agreement between the two countries, which obliges the parties to compensate for capital losses in the event of illegal actions on the part of the state.

The arbitration tribunal decided that the Russian state's tax claims against the company, which led to its bankruptcy, were the reason for seizing Yukos's assets and transferring them to Rosneft, and "Russia's goal is not to legally collect taxes, but to expropriate the company," says a partner at Covington & Burling Marney Chick. The arbitration found the Russian government guilty of the deliberate bankruptcy of Yukos, as a result of which the state-owned Rosneft received the vast majority of its assets, the law firm reports. “The court’s decision is consistent with the position of the plaintiffs, who are convinced that the true purpose of the Russian Federation’s actions was not the legal collection of taxes, but the expropriation of Yukos,” stated Covington & Burling partner Marnie Chick.

The amount of compensation, according to Covington & Burling, was awarded based on the valuation of Yukos at $60 billion.

Previously, the law firm estimated the losses of Yukos investors in countries that have investment protection agreements with Russia at more than $10 billion.

This is already the second decision of the Stockholm arbitration in favor of former Yukos shareholders, of whom there are several thousand around the world. In September 2010, he awarded $3.5 million in damages from Russia in favor of the British shareholder RosinvestCo, which owned 7 million shares in the oil company, under the Russian-British investment protection agreement. Russia tried to challenge the jurisdiction of the Stockholm Arbitration Court in the Swedish state courts, but its complaint was rejected. The Russian Ministry of Finance has not yet reported on possible actions on the claims of minority shareholders.

Russian lawyers believe that it will not be easy for Spanish minority shareholders to enforce the decision. “If the decision in Russia is not made voluntarily, it will have to go through an internal enforcement procedure in the Russian arbitration court,” says Andrey Zelenin, managing partner of the law firm Lidings . — The court, as a rule, does not make decisions against the Russian government. He may refuse to enforce the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court on the basis of a contradiction with Russian public law, justifying this, for example, by the fact that the Yukos trial occurred during the period of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.”

“The only chance for minority shareholders is to try to enforce the arbitration decision abroad, using the opportunity to seize Russian real estate or funds in foreign accounts,” believes international lawyer Ilya Rachkov .

Similar cases have already happened. In the early 2000s, the Swiss company Noga managed to seize Russian property several times, including the sailing ship Sedov, planes at the Le Bourget air show, and even a collection of paintings from the Pushkin Museum. In 2008, Bavarian businessman Franz Sedelmayer managed to seize 138 thousand euros deposited at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and Industry . And, although after the investigation the arrests were lifted, such stories greatly affect the image of Russia, Rachkov notes.

The Stockholm arbitration court supported the Spanish minority shareholders of YUKOS