MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia will file a legal challenge against the seizure of Russian state assets in Finland as part of a claim against it by Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Lawyers for Naftogaz said on Sunday they had obtained a freeze of Russian state-owned real estate and other assets in Finland worth tens of millions of dollars. Naftogaz has been pursuing legal action against Russia since 2016 to seek compensation for Moscow's expropriation of Naftogaz property when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
"Of course, we will dispute this in court. Naturally, the Russian Federation will defend its property interests, so we will use all legal mechanisms to protect our interests," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
A tribunal in The Hague ordered Russia in April 2023 to pay Naftogaz $4.22 billion plus interest and legal costs to compensate it for the seized assets in Crimea, but Moscow has not done so.
Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said in a statement: "Since Russia refuses to pay the amounts owed under the award, (Naftogaz) will continue to leverage all available mechanisms to ensure recovery of these funds in target jurisdictions hosting Russian assets."
David Pinsky, a partner at Covington who serves as counsel for Naftogaz, said the Finnish asset freeze was just one step in a global strategy to secure the compensation, including actions in the United States and Britain.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in a statement posted on her ministry's website, said Finnish judicial officials had either failed to justify or not advised Russia of action to seize Russian property.
She noted one property in Helsinki that housed a Russian centre for culture and science in connection with which no such notice had been given. Russia's embassy in Helsinki, she said, was seeking clarification of all procedures being undertaken.