The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has upheld the arbitration awards by which the Arbitration Court in the case on the protection of PrivatBank's investments against russia recognized that russia illegally expropriated the bank's assets in Crimea.
The bank has said this in a statement, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
The Supreme Court has finally and completely rejected russia's objections to the interim arbitration award of February 24, 2017 and the partial arbitration award of February 4, 2019.
The Supreme Court's decision paves the way for the Arbitration Court to finally determine the amount of losses and damages caused to PrivatBank by russia.
It is noted that until April 2014, PrivatBank carried out significant operational activities and stored valuable assets on the Crimean peninsula, including loans, real estate and cash.
Shortly after the illegal occupation of Crimea, russia took a series of measures that led to the illegal expropriation of PrivatBank’s assets and the termination of its operations in Crimea.
As a result, in 2015, PrivatBank initiated arbitration proceedings against russia under the 1998 Agreement on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments.
In these proceedings, which russia initially decided to abstain from, the Arbitration Court issued an interim award and a partial award, ruling that the Arbitration Court had jurisdiction over the dispute and that russia had illegally expropriated PrivatBank’s assets in Crimea.
In 2019, russia filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal in The Hague, seeking to overturn the arbitration award.
In 2022, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in its entirety, but Russia appealed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.
This appeal was ultimately dismissed.
PrivatBank was represented in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands by the law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V., with the support of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP as lead legal counsel in the arbitration proceedings and Asters as Ukrainian law counsel.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, 100% of PrivatBank's shares are owned by the state, represented by the Ministry of Finance.
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