The Russian AFK Sistema announced the onset of a technical default on July 17, 2017 for a number of its loan obligations worth about 3.9 billion rubles. The report, published on Monday, July 17, on the company's website, notes that the technical default was caused by the continued seizure of MTS, Medsi and BESK shares owned by AFK Sistema and Sistema-Invest, which was imposed by the Arbitration Court of Bashkiria in The consideration of the claim of Rosneft, Bashneft and the Republic of Bashkortostan about "recovering 170.6 billion rubles of losses allegedly incurred by ANK Bashneft in connection with its reorganization."

Sistema noted that non-compliance with a number of conditions on a number of loan commitments, which became the basis for a technical default, "is solely due to a court decision to arrest the above assets and is purely formal." "The corporation serves and plans to continue to service its credit and financial obligations on time and in full," the press release of Sistema stresses.

The company called the arrest of Sistema's assets unfounded and promised to continue to take all necessary actions to lift the arrest. For this purpose, an appeal was lodged with the Arbitration Court of Appeal.

Sistema's representative Sergey Kopylov told Interfax that conditions for the seizure of assets worth more than $ 25 million will be violated from July 17. He did not comment on the specific transactions, noting that this is a small agreement on the volume. "We do not expect creditors to demand early repayment of these obligations, since AFK serves and plans to service all its obligations in a timely and full amount," Kopylov said.

Mikhail Leontiev, vice president and spokesman for Rosneft, called the move by AFK Sistema an attempt to "throw" its creditors. "If Sistema wants to use such an absolutely formal procedure as a security arrest, in order to throw its creditors, it says a lot about the business style of this company. Maybe they decided that if it got so bad, then you can all throw, "- said Leontiev radio station" Says Moscow ".

In May 2017, Rosneft and Bashneft filed a claim to recover from Sistema and ZAO Sistema Invest damages amounting to 170.6 billion rubles, which were caused to the companies by the reorganization of Bashneft, the package of which ( More than 70% of the shares) until December 2014 owned by AFK Sistema.

AFK Sistema believes that the lawsuit itself and its amount are unfounded. The representative of Sistema earlier noted that all documents relating to the reorganization of Bashneft, including the separation balance sheet, were prepared in full compliance with corporate procedures and the requirements of the current legislation.

On June 26, 2017, AFK Sistema reported that the court seized 31.76% of MTS shares, 100% of Medsi's shares and 90.47% of BESK's shares as collateral for claims against Rosneft at 170.6% Billion rubles. Sistema said that the shareholders of the company and the operator of MTS, in which AFK owns 50.03%, have already lost more than 150 billion rubles due to the lawsuit filed by Rosneft. As noted in the ruling of the court, the arrested assets are estimated at 185 billion rubles.

The state of the main shareholder of Sistema billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov from March 2017 decreased against the backdrop of a litigation of $ 1.5 billion.