Kyiv Post Staff – Ukraine’s richest man gave a little bit of his massive wealth back to the country last year when he built a brand new football stadium in his hometown of Donetsk.
But not everyone is impressed with Rinat Akhmetov’s generosity.
The contractor for the construction of Donbass Arena, Turkish firm Enka, has filed a lawsuit with a Moscow arbitration court against Akhmetov’s football team Shakhtar, which ordered the work.
Sergey Palkin, general director of Shaktar, said the lawsuit was filed on April 12 with the International Commercial Arbitration Court of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But he wouldn’t reveal the size of the claim.
Palkin said Enka was seeking to reclaim what the Turkish company calls “serious losses” from their fulfillment of the contract.
“Rinat Akhmetov met Enka halfway and approved a $50 million increase to the amount already stipulated in the contract,” Palkin said. “However, Enka has now violated the agreement between the two sides and taken court action, which from our point of view cannot be justified.”
Palkin said Shakhtar, for its part, is unhappy with the timeliness but not the quality with which Enka built the stadium.
Enka’s Moscow office failed to respond to requests for commentary.
The claim is being heard by the Moscow court in accordance with the terms of the contract.
Akhmetov, who in addition to his Shakhtar football team boasts assets in metallurgy, mining, media and telecommunications, has gained much acclaim for building Donbass-Arena in the run up to Ukraine’s scheduled hosting of the Euro 2012 football tournament.
