Ukraine's Oschadbank to sue Russia over lost assets in the Crimea
Ukrainian Oschadbank aims to receive indemnification worth more than $1 billion from Russia for the assets in annexed Crimea, the bank’s press service reported.
“On August 26 Oschadbank filed a lawsuit with all the evidence attached. The required compensation includes the cost of the loss of assets, the value of business losses, as well as interest rates that will be charged before the tribunal’s final decision and before the actual acceptance of the payment at the commercial rate determined by the tribunal, and amounts to more than $1 billion,” the statement says.
According to the bank, following its proposal and supported by arguments, the tribunal decided not to initiate multiple proceedings and not to allocate separate proceedings for the jurisdictional issues. All matters related to the jurisdiction, the essence of the claim and the damage assessment will be heard during one session, which will greatly speed up the examination of the case.
According to the report, if after filing a claim by Oschadbank the Russian Federation continues to refuse to participate in the arbitration proceedings, the claim will be considered according to the accelerated time schedule until the final hearing, currently scheduled for the end of March 2017.
The next procedural step is a hearing on the merits in court.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, on July 1, 2016 with total assets of $185.1 billion, Oschadbank ranked 2nd among the 108 banks that operate in the country.