The court arrested shares belonging to AFK Sistema at the suit of Rosneft

The court arrested about 32% of the shares of the mobile operator MTS, 100% of the shares of the MEDSI group of companies and 97% of the shares of BPGC JSC, which belong to AFK Sistema, satisfying the claim of Rosneft.

According to the Sistema website, the corporation will appeal the court's ruling and the bailiff's decision, since it does not agree with this decision.

Rosneft official representative Mikhail Leontyev told RBC that this is not the last arrest in the company’s lawsuit against AFK. He added that Sistema, according to Rosneft, “treats the court with contempt.”

In total, AFK owns almost half of the shares of MTS, and the other half is traded on the stock exchange. Rosneft demands about 170 billion rubles from AFK. The company believes that Rosneft suffered such losses while Sistema was managing Bashneft.

Half of the shares of Bashneft belonged to Sistema until its head, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was sent under house arrest in 2014. After this, Sistema abandoned its shares, which came under the control of the state, and later Rosneft. Then Yevtushenkov was released.