Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov initiates arbitration against Russia demanding compensation for damage from lost assets in the territories where the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics are located. It is reported by RBC with reference to the SCM holding owned by Akhmetov.
In which court the application will be submitted is not specified.
The company said that we are talking about dozens of enterprises in the mining, metallurgical, energy sectors and real estate, among them the Yenakiyevo Metallurgical Plant, DTEK Rovenkianthracite, DTEK Sverdlovanthracite, the Kirsha training base and the Donbass Arena, in over $400 million was invested in its construction.
Akhmetov is demanding compensation for the damage he says Russia caused between 2014 and 2017. He intends to use the money received for the restoration of Ukraine.
In the summer of 2022, the businessman filed a lawsuit against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), stating that he was demanding compensation for the affected industrial enterprises, including the Azovstal plant (owned by the Metinvest group owned by Akhmetov). The Kremlin, in response to this, recalled that Russia had left the jurisdiction of the court.
In October, 16 Metinvest enterprises filed suits with the ECHR for the same reasons. As stated in the group, due to Russia’s actions, it cannot use its assets for commercial purposes and receive income. In an interview with the Italian Il Secolo, Metinvest CEO Yuri Ryzhenkov estimated the losses at “tens of billions of euros.”
Akhmetov owns 100% of SCM shares. The main shareholders of Metinvest are SCM (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Last summer, the head of the National Council of Ukraine for Television and Radio Broadcasting, Olga Gumenyuk, told Ukrainian Forbes that the media holding of the businessman, Media Group Ukraine, had transferred licenses for all of its TV channels and print media to the state. Akhmetov explained his exit from the media business by the law on oligarchs adopted in 2021.
Last year, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Akhmetov’s fortune decreased from $13.7 billion to $4.4 billion. According to the American edition of Forbes, Akhmetov’s assets now amount to $5.7 billion, he remains the richest Ukrainian.
Source: Rosbalt
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