MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. The Russian State Property Agency (Rosimushchestvo) considers the oil company Bashneft’s disputed shares as Russia’s property, a Rosimushchestvo official said on Thursday.
“We consider the disputed assets to be exclusively the property of the Russian Federation,” the Rosimushchestvo official said in the Arbitration Court, which was examining a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office against the holding company Sistema on the return of Bashneft shares to state ownership. “We’re requesting to satisfy the lawsuit in full,” he said.
The oil producer Bashneft has no objection to the lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office to the holding company Sistema, a Bashneft representative said in a court on Thursday. “The company Bashneft is not a full-fledged participant in the court proceedings because it does not possess disputed property. But if the Prosecutor General’s Office considers it necessary to claim shares from a bona fide buyer, we can’t find counter-arguments to this,” the Bashneft representative said during hearings in the Moscow Arbitration Court.
A representative of the embattled Sistema holding company said in a court that the government of Bashkortostan must compensate for the damage done to the state. “If the Prosecutor General’s Office believes that the sale of the Bashneft shares by decision of the Bashkortostan government caused damage, then the government of Bashkortostan must repair this damage,” the Sistema representative said.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office may claim the return of no more than 38% of Bashneft shares instead of 71%, as most shares were transferred to the company’s personnel for free, a representative of the Sistema holding company said. “That is why, the Prosecutor General’s Office may claim no more than 30-38% of shares. Otherwise, this may be considered as de-privatization of shares,” the Sistema representative said.