Ukraine seizes assets of Russian gas giant Gazprom amid legal wrangle

The move comes after a Ukrainian regulator in 2016 imposed a fine of around USD 3.5 billion on Gazprom for abusing its monopoly position on the market for gas transit services.

“Everything that Gazprom possessed on Ukrainian territory has been described, impounded and transferred to the state budget,” Ukraine’s Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said, according to Poland’s PAP news agency.

Petrenko added that the impounded assets were worth more than 100 million Ukrainian hryvnia, or USD 3.8 million, in all, according to PAP, which cited a report by the state-run Ukrinform news agency.

Petrenko also said that the Ukrainian justice ministry was determined to seize more funds -- to the tune of some USD 6 billion in total -- from Gazprom, PAP said.

Gazprom fined billions

In January 2016, Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee regulator said it imposed a fine of 85 billion hryvnia (about USD 3.5 billion) on Gazprom for abusing its position as a monopoly on the market for transmitting gas via Ukraine. In December that same year, a court in Kiev ordered that the fine be collected, according to PAP.

The Antimonopoly Committee accused Gazprom of regularly violating the terms of its contract with Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm Naftogaz from 2009 to 2015 and of ignoring any requests to adjust the size of gas transit to an economically justified level. Gazprom rejected the accusations.

In 2017, a Ukrainian court ordered Gazprom to pay the state 171 billion hryvnia (currently equivalent to over USD 6.5 billion) for breaching competition regulations, PAP reported.

(gs/pk)

Source: businessinsider.com.pl