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MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The Swedish court of appeal’s decision on Russia’s complaint creates no immediate grounds for protesting the Hague arbitration court’s $50 billion resolution in the YUKOS case, but Russia may use it to prolong the litigation, polled lawyers have told TASS.
The daily Kommersant says Sweden’s appellate court has acknowledged that the Stockholm court of arbitration had no competence to levy a compensation from Russia for the expropriation of YUKOS assets in a lawsuit Spanish investment funds filed in 2012. This creates certain grounds for Russia to demand cancellation of the arbitration court’s ruling to levy $2 million and interest in favor of the funds in question and also gives Russia a firmer foothold in disputing the Hague arbitration court’s ruling Russia should pay $50 billion.
The head of the legal firm Sazonov and Partners, Vsevolod Sazonov, believes that Russia in 2009 acknowledged the Hague court of arbitration’s competence by joining the proceedings and making no references to the fact that it had not ratified the related part of the Energy Charter.
"In the Stockholm Court Russia originally said that the court had no competence, but in the Hague Russia and its US lawyers agreed that such a competence did exist and agreed to join the court hearings, thereby acknowledging the court’s competence," Sazonov told TASS. He believes that Russia can now use the Swedish court’s decision as a means to delay the litigation.
The general secretary of the Arbitration Association, Roman Zykov, has told TASS the Swedish court’s ruling was intermediate and did not cancel the earlier resolution by the Stockholm court of arbitration, but at the same time it upheld one of the arguments the request for overturning it was based on.
"Under Swedish legislation there are several grounds for cancelling the Stockholm court’s ruling. The lack of competence is one of them. Russia now has grounds to file a request for cancelling the Stockholm court’s verdict," he said.