The Russian Ministry of Finance found 10 flaws in the decision of the International Arbitration in The Hague in the YUKOS case. This is stated in the department’s message issued on July 28. Earlier on Monday it became known that the arbitration court awarded the former shareholders of the oil company, represented by Group Menatep Limited, $50 billion for the “illegally expropriated Yukos.” In addition, Russia must compensate legal costs of $65 million.

Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC

As the document states, “instead of an objective, impartial consideration of the case, the composition of the arbitration tribunal subordinated its actions to opportunistic considerations and ultimately made politically biased decisions.”

The Ministry counted ten claims against the International Arbitration in The Hague. Among them is the contradiction of the verdict to the conclusions of the two chambers of the European Court of Human Rights, which twice recognized that YUKOS twice committed large-scale tax evasion, and the actions of the Russian authorities were not of a political nature.

Among other violations of arbitration, the Ministry of Finance pointed to a one-sided study and application of evidence, unacceptable revision of complex decisions of the courts of the Russian Federation, speculative assumptions of arbitration about the reasons for the actions of government bodies of the Russian Federation, the use of such assumptions by the arbitration tribunal to justify its conclusions that are not confirmed by facts, the denial by the arbitration tribunal of the validity of additional assessments Yukos income tax.

The department's dissatisfaction was caused by the arbitration's refusal to take into account the fact that several shell trading companies of YUKOS evaded taxes according to a scheme similar to the parent company, although the arbitration itself recognized the fact of tax evasion by subsidiaries, the inability of the arbitration to come to “obvious conclusions that the management of YUKOS knew about the tax violations being committed.” violations."

The arbitration court in The Hague, as noted in a statement from the Ministry of Finance, refuted the validity of additional taxes on YUKOS based on fictitious ideas about Russian legislation.

The Ministry of Finance also considered the refusal of the arbitration tribunal to transfer disputed issues to the competence of the authorities of Great Britain, Russia and Cyprus, although this is provided for in the Energy Charter Treaty, as a flaw. In particular, they discussed the recognition of taxes as expropriation.

The Treasury Department criticized an attempt to provide a hypothetical estimate of the value of Yukos ten years after the alleged expropriation.

The department's statement emphasizes that the International Arbitration in The Hague did not have jurisdiction to consider such issues, since Russia did not ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, of which the country was found guilty of violating. Russia, according to the Ministry of Finance, has not agreed to arbitration before ratification in any of the over 50 investment protection agreements.

The Ministry of Finance said that Russia intends to challenge the arbitration decision in the courts of the Netherlands, where it “expects to achieve a fair result.”

As Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak explained to ITAR-TASS, Moscow will insist on annulment of the arbitration verdict. “This will be a procedure for annulment, challenging [the court decision] with the aim of annulment,” the official said.

on Monday morning that Moscow intends to continue legal proceedings with the former owners of Yukos . announced The head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, also

“The Russian side and those departments that represent Russia in this process will certainly use all available legal opportunities to defend their position,” the minister said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

The litigation of Group Menatep Limited, whose beneficiaries are former Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin, Vladimir Dubov and others, against Russia in the Yukos case began in 2005. The plaintiffs alleged that the government used tax claims against Yukos to nationalize the company. The plaintiffs consider the purchase of Yukos' key asset, Yuganskneftegaz, by state-owned Rosneft as proof of this. As a result, the arbitration side sided with the plaintiffs.

The defendant first tried to challenge the arbitration itself in The Hague, and then tried to prove the legality of the tax claims against the oil company.

GML's initial claims against Russia were $114 billion.

After the arbitration verdict, the company's former main shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin issued statements in which they welcomed the decision of the arbitration tribunal in The Hague.

GML CEO Tim Osborne warned that if Russia fails to pay $50 billion, his company will begin to pursue Russian assets around the world. The target will be commercial property of the state.

Alexander Ratnikov

The Ministry of Finance found 10 flaws in the arbitration decision on YUKOS