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Russian court to resume hearings of lawsuit against Polish Consulate General

The initial court session was scheduled for the end of December but the arbiters postponed it for familiarization with new materials

St PETERSBURG, February 3. /TASS/. Arbitration Court of St Petersburg and the Leningrad region is expected to resume hearings of a lawsuit for levying an arrear of more than 74 million rubles (around $ 1.1 million) from the Polish Consulate General.

The claimant, the state enterprise Interpredservis that provides services to foreign diplomatic missions accredited in the city, says the Polish consulate had not been paying rent for more than twenty years for two buildings it occupies in the city’s downtown area.

The initial court session was scheduled for the end of December but the arbiters postponed it for familiarization with new materials.

The claimant says that the USSR and Poland signed an inter-governmental agreement in 1983, in line with which buildings No. 12 and No. 14 on Pyataya Sovietskaya Street were occupied by the Consulate General. However, Poland withdrew from the agreement unilaterally in 1993 and no new rent agreement has been signed ever since then.

The amount of 74.3 million rubles covers the past three years. This is the maximum term, for which arrears can be levied under law.

Neither the court nor the reporters have managed to get familiarized with the position of the defendant. The Consulate General refuses to comment on the situation, and its representatives do not turn up in the courtroom.

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