Company "Naftogaz of Ukraine" and six of its subsidiaries on Monday filed a lawsuit in an international court against Russia, demanding $ 2.6 billion to compensate for the losses inflicted "Unlawful Seizure of the Russian Federation group of assets in the Crimea." This is stated in "Naftogaz" statement.

The basis for the claim "Natofgaz" refers to an agreement between the Government of Russia and the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, better known as the Russian-Ukrainian bilateral investment agreement.

"After the illegal invasion and occupation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014. The Russian Federation has adopted an ambitious and well-coordinated scheme of deprivation of Ukrainian companies of their property without compensation", - said in a statement. In December 2015 "Naftogaz" assessed the damage caused by the termination of activity in the Crimea is only for 2014 of 13.8 billion hryvnia (about $ 580 million at the exchange rate as of December 2015), and the cost of lost assets - 15.7 billion hryvnia ($ 660 billion).

The company has lost 15 fields, and three promising areas of hydrocarbons nPeninsula and its offshore Glebovsky underground gas storage, has lost more than 1,200 kilometers of main gas pipelines, 43 gas distribution stations, 29 boats, four floating drilling rigs, including high-tech "Petro Godovanets" and "Nezalezhnist" and other objects of industrial infrastructure. Stocks of deposits - about 50 billion cubic meters. meters of gas, 3.5 million tons of oil and 1 million tons of gas condensate, the company said.

In February 2016, "Naftogaz" has officially notified Russia of an investment dispute within the framework of a bilateral agreement on mutual protection of investments between the two countries. Judging by the transfer of a claim to arbitration, we could not solve it through negotiations.

The intergovernmental agreement, the term "investment" means all types of property and intellectual values ​​invested by an investor of one Contracting Party in the territory of the other in accordance with the legislation of the latter, says the head of the group of international arbitration and cross-border disputes Goltsblat BLP Yuri Babich. "Naftogaz" did not make investments in the territory of Russia and in accordance with the growingRussian legislation, he received the Crimean assets when the Crimea was still there and acted Ukrainian Ukrainian legislation, says Babich. I agree with him head of the practice of international litigation and arbitration Art de Lex Artur Zurabyan. And controversial arguments about the expropriation, he notes, is likely, in this case it was a question of the assets of legal entities registered in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, which can not be regarded as a Ukrainian investor.

The question of the Crimea can play a cruel joke with the "Naftogaz" and believes the managing partner of a lawyer association Suprema Lex (Kiev) Victor Frost. Reasons for satisfaction of the claim appear, if we recognize that the territory of Crimea - Russia and do not comply with the requirements of international agreements. But from the point of view of Ukraine, Crimea still is its territory, and in this way the claim has no future, says Frost. Another important factor, in his opinion, - justification of the amount of damages. Accurately determine the economic damage, in this case difficult, said Frost. The total value of property nationalized after the Russianannexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, is $ 1 billion, of Forbes wrote, citing data from The New York Times.

Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov has not yet replied to a written question to comment on this information. So did the representative of "Naftogaz". The representative of the Federal Property Management Agency was unavailable for journalists.