OREANDA-NEWS. A permanent court of arbitration in the Hague collected from Russia $ 44.4 million in compensation for the loss of Ukrnafta’s property in the Crimea, the company's press service reported. Additionally, the court demanded that Moscow compensate interest, it's more than $ 5.5 million, penalty and arbitration expenses (more than 3.5 million).

The lawsuit deals with administrative premises and 16 gas stations on the territory of the peninsula. The arbitration also recognized its jurisdiction in a similar lawsuit against Russia filed by the Ukrainian company Stabil and ten other persons.

In October 2014, Ukrnafta stated that Russia had violated its obligations under the 1998 investment agreement. This, according to the company, at first prevented investments in the Crimean gas stations, and then led to their expropriation. According to Ukrnafta, four years later, the Swiss Supreme Court recognized that the company is an investor under the contract, and its property in the Crimea is an investment.

The Russian side stated that a bilateral investment protection agreement cannot serve as a basis for resolving the claims of the claimants by the arbitral tribunal.
In addition, they noted that they did not recognize the jurisdiction of the Hague arbitration in this proceeding.

Earlier, experts said that the attempts of Ukrainian companies to sue Russia is similar to trolling, so Ukrnafta and 11 other Ukrainian companies filed lawsuits against Russia with the Hague Court. Lawyer Janis Uksha on the radio Sputnik expressed the opinion that a company such as Ukrnafta has no grounds for filing a lawsuit against the Russian Federation. Among the plaintiffs are also such companies as Kirovograd-Nafta, Crimea-Petrol, Pirsan, Trade-Trust, Eleftheria, VKF Satak, Rustel, Rubenor, Stemv Group, Novel-Estate and Stabil.