- Russia will take steps to protect its assets abroad - head of Kremlin administration
- Russia hired lawyers to defend interests in countries where it's assets frozen — Deputy PM
- Lavrov says seizure of Russian assets ‘gross violation,’ hopes common sense will prevail
- Russian assets seizure in Europe completely illegitimate — minister
MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. The seizure of accounts of Russia’s diplomatic missions in France and Belgium as part of the Yukos case was reversed after talks through the Russian Foreign Ministry channels, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov told TASS on Thursday.
"A range of decisions taken on the seizure of accounts and in particular those of diplomatic missions were canceled by authorities of respective countries - France and Belgium - after talks conducted via the diplomatic channels of the Russian Foreign Ministry," Konovalov said.
Moscow still plans to challenge the seizure of its state assets and accounts in courts and to this aim the respective contracts have been signed in France with local legal firms, the minister said.
"There have been no official appeals with the courts yet," Konovalov said.
"I suspect that there will be some," he said, adding the French lawyers will represent Russia’s interests regarding all the issues linked to the enforcement of the Hague court’s ruling in the case concerning the now-defunct Yukos oil giant.
The contracts with the French companies were signed in early June, he said.
Last week, Konovalov said that Moscow has all the grounds to ask for compensation for losses due to seizure of Russia’s state assets abroad. "Courts are to decide whether to levy execution on the foreign property," Konovalov said.