Russian court tells Telenor to pay 1.7 billion USD in damages
A Russian court on Friday ordered the Norwegian telecommunications firm Telenor to pay 1.7 billion USD in damages to the company Farimex, a shareholder in VimpelCom.
Telenor has already proclaimed that it will appeal the verdict:
- We consider this decision a serious unlawful and without grounds, Telenor’s lawyer Grigory Chernyshev said - It endangers the Russian legal system and questions its ability to defend investors in Russia, The International Herald Tribune reports with reference to Reuters.
Farimex had sought to freeze Telenor’s 29,9 percent stake in Vimpelcom as security against the damages it claimed, but the court turned down that request. The conflict between Telenor and Farimex has been going on for five years.
Telenor’s representative in Russia, Kjell-Morten Johnsen, said the company is confident it will ultimately win in its battle:
-We are confident that the higher level of the Russian court system will not let this move any further when we get there, he said. We will never pay a single dollar to settle a case like this, he added.
