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The Hague’s arbitration court was not legally empowered to view the case of Yukos Oil Company v. Russia, and the court’s “one-sided” ruling disregards previous Strasbourg court decisions on the issue, the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement.
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MORE: ‘Mega-arbitration’: Court orders Russia to pay $50bn in
Yukos case
Viewing the case, filed by shareholders of former Russian oil
giant Yukos against the Russian government, was not in the
jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the
Hague, as Russia has not ratified the Energy Charter Treaty, the
ministry said on Monday.
The statement, following the court’s sensational
Monday ruling that ordered Russia to pay $50 billion in damages, also provided a
detailed list of issues, which, according to the ministry, make
the decision “opportunistic” and “politically
biased.”
First of all, The Hague court ignored the previous decisions of
the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which
in September 2011 ruled that the Russian authorities had carried
out “legitimate” and not politically motivated actions
against Yukos “to counter the company’s tax evasion,”
the ministry noted. The ruling contradicted Yukos shareholders’
claims that the company’s assets were purposefully expropriated
by Moscow.
The Russian Finance Ministry meanwhile blasted the arbitration
ruling as based on “one-sided investigation with one-sided
application of evidence.”
The Hague court in effect reviewed the decisions of Russian
courts on Yukos “as if the arbitration court was an
additional authority for appealing the court orders,” the
ministry said. It has made “theoretical speculations not
supported by evidence” over the motivation of the Russian
authorities’ actions in the case of Yukos, it added.
The international body failed to note that the people who
controlled Yukos, including the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky
released from jail in December, were apparently aware of
financial machinations aimed at a mass-scale tax evasion in favor
of the company, the ministry stressed. The tax evasion scheme,
which involved the creation of numerous bogus companies, was not
properly considered in the court.
The arbitration court went as far as to judge “what Russian
tax legislation should be like” as opposed to what it
required in reality, the ministry said. The court refused to pass
several controversial issues on taxes for review by Russian, UK
or Cyprus competent authorities despite relying on the Energy
Charter Treaty that outlines a need for such reviews, it added.
While in effect saying The Hague court decision was not legally
binging for Moscow, the ministry added that “the Russian
Federation will challenge the arbitration court’s decisions in
the courts of the Netherlands.”
According to the ministry, “the arbitration court failed to
approach the adjudication with common sense, which is required
from the judges in such situations,” which resulted in an
unobjective and biased decision.
“Such an approach undermines the authority of the Arbitration
court and the Energy Charter Treaty, which are being applied in
increasingly politicized manner and, as in this case, have become
the objects of abuse on behalf of domestic investors trying to
evade taxes,” the ministry said.
ECHR is expected to announce a fresh decision on Yukos’
multi-billion dollar claim against Russia on Thursday, as the
defunct company’s shareholders have filed a separate application
with the Strasbourg court, Reuters reported.
Article source: http://rt.com/business/176200-moscow-hague-yukos-ruling/
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