The Crimean authorities are ready to file another lawsuit against the Ukrainian authorities - we are talking about a multi-billion dollar amount of damage that arose due to the departure of Ukrainian banks from the peninsula after its reunification with Russia, which did not fulfill their obligations to depositors.
This was reported by the PolitNavigator correspondent, stated by the head of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, who announced the preparation of a corresponding claim.
According to Sergei Trofimov, Chairman of the Committee on Legislation of the State Council of Crimea, about 90 Ukrainian banks operated in the region. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, about half did not fulfill their obligations, including not returning depositors’ funds.
The amount of damage is estimated at 60 billion rubles, of which almost 30 billion were compensated from the Russian budget. At the same time, lawyers believe that there are grounds for the claim.
“From the point of view of law, then there is a violation. Banks cannot unilaterally withdraw deposits, and this is a fundamental principle of civil law, the violation of which without negative consequences requires more than a change in the nationality of the territory in question.
Even those deposits that were actually withdrawn by the government of Nikolai Ryzhkov in 1990 were gradually compensated subsequently. And in this case, it will be quite difficult for Ukraine to form a principled position on the claim,” Artur Zurabyan, partner, lawyer, head of the dispute resolution and international arbitration practice of the ART DE LEХ law office, told Kommersant.
At the same time, he draws attention to the fact that even if the courts unexpectedly side with the Crimean investors, the question of actually receiving the funds remains.
“We need to be realistic. Ukraine, of course, will not compensate for this money, no matter what decision is made by international courts,” the lawyer believes.
However, in his opinion, the awarded amounts can be directly or indirectly taken into account in relation to possible counterclaims of Ukraine arising from claims for the nationalization of property in the territory of Crimea.