You're reading: Russia ordered to pay $82 million to Ukrainian companies for assets confiscated in Crimea 

The Swiss Federal Court ordered Russia to pay 80 million Swiss Francs ($82 million) to 12 Ukrainian companies seized in Russian-occupied Crimea back in 2014, the Swiss-based media outlet Swiss.ch reported on Jan. 9.

The verdicts of Dec. 12  rejected the appeal of Russia, which dismissed the judgments by questioning the legitimacy of the Swiss-based court.

It is the latest chapter of an intricate five-year-long judicial dispute between the two countries over assets seized by Russia on the Black Sea peninsula it annexed in 2014.

Two verdicts for many disputes

There are actually two verdicts, each one of these concerning different cases.

The first one concerns only Ukrnafta, the largest producer of oil and gas in the country.

It is is also an operator of a gas filling station network in Ukraine nationwide. The state company Naftogaz Ukrainy owns just over half of the company’s shares, and 42% of the company belongs to the so-called Privat Group, partly founded and owned by controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

Between 2003 and 2006, Ukrnafta acquired 16 petrol stations on the Crimean peninsula and rented office space in Feodosia, employing 30 people there. In 2013, the company controlled 10 percent of the Crimean fuel market, all assets seized by Russia.

In April 2014, shortly after the annexation of Crimea, Russia seized administrative offices and 16 petrol stations belonging to Ukrnafta.

Five years later, a Geneva-based arbitral tribunal ordered Russia to pay damages in the amount of over $44 million.

Russia appealed the decision, only for it to be rejected by the Swiss Federal Court in December 2019.

Read also: Court of arbitration to collect $44.4 million from Russia in favor of Ukrnafta

The second ruling concerns 12 Ukrainian companies, unnamed in the report, and includes Ukrnafta, but this arbitration is part of a different procedure.

The claim, worth $82 million, concerns 12 Ukrainian companies, subsidiaries of Ukrnafta.

The companies were “established under Ukrainian law,” the verdict reported.

Ten of them began operating in 2000, and they acquired 31 petrol stations, which they operated for 10 years on the Crimean peninsula.

The two other companies, also unnamed, owned two fuel and petroleum stations in Simferopol and Sevastopol. Their assets were seized by Russian forces in 2014.

Ukrainian-based companies first initiated arbitration proceedings in June 2015 at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, for the first round of damages worth $47 million.

Russia then constantly questioned the legitimacy of every court responsible to judge the case. In April 2019, the Geneva-based arbitral tribunal found that Russia had to pay even more damages and their interests, bringing the bill to $82 million.

Still, Russia argued that the Geneva court was not appropriate to rule on the case, as it thereby determined the status of the Crimea.

The Federal Court in Lausanne ruled on Dec. 12, 2019 that the jurisdiction of the court in Geneva cannot be challenged.

Therefore, Russia owes Ukrainian companies $82 million.

However, given Russia’s frequent disregard for international laws, it is unlikely that this judicial saga stops in Lausanne, and that the country’s lawyers won’t find a way to avoid paying compensation to Ukrainian companies for illegally seizing their assets in Crimea.