Miller did not rule out the imposition of sanctions against Naftogaz

Chairman of the Board of the CorporationGazprom» Alexey Miller said that the company does not consider it legitimate to arbitrate Naftogaz Ukrainy against itself.

“Can one count on a fair and impartial consideration of the dispute in Switzerland, which has joined the anti-Russian sanctions? Can the right of Sweden, which aspires to join NATO, be neutral? These are rhetorical questions. In such conditions”Gazprom“considers that the arbitration proceedings are illegitimate and participation in the process is meaningless,” said the chairman of the board (quote according to TASS).

In his opinion, the Russian corporation has lost its right to a fair trial due to sanctions and Russophobia in Europe. Miller notedthat the Ukrainian company “continues its attempts to organize unfair litigation regarding the transit of Russian gas to Europe, but Naftogaz itself, under far-fetched pretexts, is violating contractual obligations to Gazprom.”

Miller said that if such actions of Naftogaz continue, the imposition of sanctions by Russia is not ruled out. “Then any relations between Russian companies and Naftogaz will simply be impossible,” the top manager emphasized.

In April of this year, the Arbitration Tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague decided to oblige Russia to pay compensation to the Naftogaz Ukrainy group in the amount of $5 billion for losses from the loss of assets in Crimea. Later, Naftogaz applied to the US District Court for the District of Columbia with a demand to enforce the court’s decision to recover these funds from Russia.

The Ukrainian company wants to take advantage of the 1958 New York Convention on the Enforcement of an Arbitral Award and start the process of enforcement of awards in the countries where Russian assets are located.

Naftogaz initiated proceedings in the autumn of 2016. The company filed an arbitration claim demanding Russia be ordered to pay compensation for what the organization believes was a violation of the 1998 investment protection agreement, including for the expropriation of strategically important energy investments in Crimea in 2014.