OREANDA-NEWS. On August 18, 2008 The Arbitration Court of the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District found Norwegian Telenor guilty of USD2.82 bn impairment and ordered the latter to pay RUB 460,000 in litigation expenses after two-day hearings in the claim filed by Farimex Products Inc. on reimbursement of USD 3.8 bn in favor of VimpelCom.

According to Telenor's spokesperson, the court ruled that Telenor is the only company liable in the case. "This decision came as no surprise for us. The case is absolutely groundless and a lot of procedural violations were committed by the court during the proceedings. Also, we believe that Farimex is affiliated with Alfa, and Telenor intends to use all legal recourse to invalidate the ruling.

We are confident that the court of appeals will issue a verdict in favor of our company. Earlier, when other cases were heard with Alfa Group involved, higher instances of the Russian judicial system invalidated unjustified rulings issued in the regions with no relation to the litigants", the media reported quoting Executive Vice President and Head of Telenor's Central and Eastern European operations Jan Edvard Thygesen.