France freezes Russian state assets in Yukos case
France has frozen Russian government assets, including bank accounts and real estate, in the wake of Moscow’s refusal to conform to a multibillion-dollar court settlement compensating shareholders in the case of now defunct Yukos oil company.
"It's bank accounts and real estate," Tim Osborne, director of GML, the main shareholder in Yukos, formerly known as Group Menatep, said on Thursday.
He added that accounts in around 40 banks had been frozen together with "eight or nine buildings."
Osborne further noted that the asset freeze took place two weeks ago but was only publicized by Russian officials on Thursday.
"Proceedings are already under way in Britain and the United States, and further countries will follow," he said.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Zadornov, the head of the French subsidiary of Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, told the Rossiya 24 television news network that the accounts of Russian companies at the VTB French subsidiary were frozen as of Wednesday. Diplomatic accounts were briefly frozen as well but were unblocked later.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow and its lawyers would look into the matter, adding, "We are now in the most careful manner examining all circumstances of the claim."
The development follows a move by Belgium, where authorities froze Russian state assets to secure payments to Yukos shareholders.
Yukos was once Russia's biggest oil producer run by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in 2003 and spent a decade in prison on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion. He was granted residency in Switzerland after being released in 2013.
In July 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, ordered Russia to pay about USD 50 billion to former Yukos shareholders. The court ruled that Russia violated the 1991 International Energy Charter, when it dismantled the oil giant, and auctioned off its main assets in 2004. The assets were taken over by Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft.
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