Ukraine accuses Russia's Gazprom of failure to pay the fine according to Stockholm arbitration ruling
The sum that Gazprom is obligated to repay Naftogaz of Ukraine, according to the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court, is increasing by half a million dollars daily due to the accrual of fines. The money will be collected in the near future, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko told journalists on Thursday.
The Stockholm Arbitration Court ruled on the disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz regarding contracts for the supply and transit of gas in December and February, respectively. Its decisions required the Russian company to pay the Ukrainian company $2.56 billion dollars.
Gazprom has said that these decisions have created an imbalance in favor of Kyiv, as a result of which it intends to appeal on one hand, and to terminate the contracts themselves through the same court on the other. In early March, Gazprom sent an official notification to Naftogaz about the launch of procedures to terminate the contracts. Last Wednesday, Gazprom appealed against the Stockholm Arbitration Court’s decision on the gas supply contracts in the Court of Sweden.
"Today a fine is being imposed on Gazprom. The fine is almost half a million dollars a day," the Ukrainian agency UNIAN quoted Petrenko as saying.
At the same time, according to Petrenko, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice is preparing to enforce the collection of the Russian company’s debt of the on the basis of the New York Convention, which allows for the recovery of such funds practically all over the world.
Petrenko stressed that Gazprom has no chance of avoiding liability, that the amount of debt that was mandated by the Stockholm Arbitration Court would only grow, and that “it will be fully recovered in the near future."
"I am convinced that this [the collection of debt] Is a matter of time, and amount that will increase and will be collected in favor of Ukrainian Naftogaz and the Ukrainian budget from this company," the Minister said.
Petrenko also added that, according to a decision by the Ukrainian Court, more than 100 million hryvnia ($3.7 million dollars) has already been collected from Gazprom in for the Ukrainian budget.
Gazprom previously said that the company does not recognize the legitimacy of the antimonopoly imposed by Ukraine, and that it considers the actions by Kyiv to recover money to be a violation of its rights. As a result, Gazprom is preparing a suit in international arbitration.