Russia-EU relationship

Georgia Accused of Human Rights Violations As 'Show Trial' Begins

TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 12, 2011 /PR Newswire/ -- Georgian authorities are proceeding with the trial of Israeli businessman Rony Fuchs, who has been held without bail in Tbilisi, the capital of the republic of Georgia, since Georgian authorities arrested him on October 14. Mr. Fuchs is little better than a hostage; he has been told he can only be released if he waives a $100 million arbitration award issued by an independent international arbitration panel in favor of Mr. Fuchs and his business partner and against Georgia, says Pinhas Rubin, a senior lawyer at Gornitzky & Co, the Israeli firm representing Mr. Fuchs and his family.
Mr. Fuchs has been in prison since October when he was arrested in Georgia after being invited to the country by a letter from the Prime Minister. Georgian officials have charged Mr. Fuchs with bribery. His trial opened briefly last week and resumed yesterday (January 11, 2011). It is, says Rubin, no more than an attempt at state-sponsored extortion.
Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has signed an emergency Petition filed with the European Court of Human Rights which accuses Georgia of violating European human rights laws and seeks Mr. Fuchs's immediate release on bail. The petition demonstrates that Georgia's entrapment of Mr. Fuchs and the use of illegally obtained evidence deprives him of any hope of a fair trial. The petition asserts that, if Georgia is able to retaliate against successful claimants by setting out to trap them in trumped-up bribery schemes, others will be afraid to challenge Georgia for fear of suffering the same consequences.
The entrapment and trial come as Georgia touts itself to international investors as the world's "Number One Reformer" and a safe haven for international investment. In fact, property protections are weak in the face of a legal system where 99.9 percent of all criminal defendants are convicted when tried in Georgia, according to statistics and analysis by independent and respected anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
Mr. Fuchs, a prominent Israeli investor in major international projects, put funds into Georgia's energy infrastructure in the early 1990s. Those investments, it has been ruled, were unlawfully expropriated by the Georgian government in the mid-1990s. On March 3, 2010, Mr. Fuchs and his business partner Yannis Kardassopoulos won a major case from the an arbitration panel appointed under the auspices of the World Bank, and are now due over $100 million from the government of Georgia.
After Georgia sought to annul the award, Georgian officials asked Mr. Fuchs to engage in in-person "settlement talks" for the supposed purpose of agreeing to discounted terms on which Georgia would drop the annulment proceedings and pay the award. The talks were a ruse arranged by Georgia for the sole purpose of secretly and illegally recording conversations with Mr. Fuchs, in which Georgian officials pressed Mr. Fuchs to pay back a portion of his funds to senior Georgian officials to speed the Georgian government's payment.
Georgian officials set-up and covertly recorded a meeting with Mr. Fuchs in Turkey, prepared a secret arrest warrant against Mr. Fuchs and his business partner, and invited him, members of his family, his lawyers, and business colleagues to travel to Batumi, Georgia on October 14 to sign settlement papers and speak to the press about investing in Georgia. Before any signing ceremony took place, Georgian authorities secretly taped Mr. Fuchs, seized him while his lawyers waited in another room, charged him on previously prepared charges of bribery, threw him in jail, and refused him bail. Immediately after his arrest, they communicated an offer to the Israeli ambassador that Mr. Fuchs would be freed from jail as soon as he agreed to give up his own rights -- and the rights of third parties not involved in the Georgian sting operation -- to the arbitration award.
Mr. Fuchs adamantly denies the charges, and his supporters characterize the case as classic Soviet-style abuse by law enforcement authorities in violation of international legal standards and Georgia's obligations under applicable European legal conventions.
Despite substantial multi-year assistance programs from the United States and the European Union to strengthen rule of law in the country, Georgia's human rights record remains weak. Last year, Freedom House found Georgia's judiciary "continues to suffer from significant corruption and pressure from the executive branch," and "the payment of bribes to judges is reportedly common." In its most recent report on human rights in Georgia, the U.S. Department of State found Georgia suffers from a wide range of abuses, including "politically motivated kidnappings and assaults, poor prison conditions, abuse of prisoners, including juveniles, arbitrary arrest and detention, politically motivated imprisonment, excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations, pressure that appeared politically motivated on owners of property, lack of due process, government pressure on the judiciary, and senior-level corruption in the government."

Italy will be eyeing Russian cash for its crisis-hit economy as President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Enrico Letta hold a meeting on Tuesday where they will unveil a 1-billion-euro ($1.4-billion) joint investment fund.

Another agreement - the first of its kind for a European Union country - would give Italian companies preferential customs treatment in Russia, it said.

Steinmeier disagrees with German business chiefs on Russia

German politicians are divided into two broad categories: 'Russia understanders' and 'Russia critics'.

The doveish Social-Democrats (SPD), including two former chancellors - Gerhard Schroeder and Helmut Schmidt, who voiced understanding for Putin's annexation of Crimea - are broadly considered to be 'Russia understanders'.

But SPD foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday (9 April) surprised an audience of businessmen, diplomats and politicians from Russia and former Soviet countries in Berlin by disagreeing with speakers from the German business community.

The event called "East Forum Berlin - opportunities for an economic area from Lisbon to Vladivostok" - was sponsored by Italian bank UniCredit, whose boss, Giuseppe Vita, cited Lenin in his opening speech and received scattered applause when he said no economic sanctions should be imposed on Russia.

Eckhard Cortes, former CEO of Metro, the German retailer, now in charge of an association of German firms doing business in eastern Europe, also said the blame for the Ukraine conflict is shared by all parties - Russia, Ukraine and the EU.

Steinmeier disagreed. "There cannot be a parallel economic world doing business as usual with Russia," he said.

"With all self-criticism that we can accept, it was illegal for Russia to redraw borders seven decades after the end of World War II. This not something we can accept and the vote in the UN Security Council proved that Russia alienated many friends," he added.

He said he could understand the business community's desire not to impose economic sanctions on Russia, but said the German government was determined to take that path if Russia continued to stir up trouble in eastern Ukraine.

"The news from eastern Ukraine indicate that the situation is about to escalate, there are massive Russian troops on the border. Risk of open violence is very high," Steinmeier said.

He pointed to the "superhuman task" of stabilising Ukraine's political and economic systems, given the years of corruption and mismanagement.

"There are no economic or political reasons for Russia to want the collapse of Ukraine," he noted.

German efforts are now focusing on the creation of a contact group so that Ukraine and Russia can find a diplomatic solution.

"This is not about Germany being there in the room - it makes no difference who is the third party. The most important thing is to get this contact group, we are not there yet," Steinmeier said.

Meanwhile, Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca noted that he was grateful to the EU commission and Romania for having started work on a multi-million euro interconnector which will allow Romania to export gas to Moldova. Currently, Moldova is 100 percent dependent on Russian gas imports.

In another positive development, Moldovans will be able to travel visa-free to Europe just three weeks' time.

"Few thought this would be possible so quickly, but it is Moldova's reward for implementing all the requirements," Leanca said.

He said Moldova's EU integration "is a modernisation project, not something directed against someone," even though the country has no EU membership perspective at the moment.

The eastern Moldovan region of Transniestria, where Russia still has at least 10,000 soldiers, has submitted a request to be annexed by Russia. But Moscow has not yet replied.

Airbornewolf wrote:...these sanctions against russia are going to cost Germany thousands of jobs....

‘Mega-arbitration’: Court orders Russia to pay $50bn in Yukos case

The International Arbitration Court in the Netherlands has ended a decade long case brought by shareholders in the defunct Yukos oil company, and ordered Russia to pay about $50 billion in damages.

The official ruling published on Monday said Russia violated the EU Energy Charter when it redistributed the company’s assets and “took steps equivalent to expropriation of the claimants’ investment in Yukos.”

The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Russia to compensate the plaintiffs with $50 billion – less than half the initial $114 billion demanded by the former shareholders. Russia has also been ordered to pay about $65 billion in legal costs.

“This is the biggest arbitration award in history,” as ITAR-TASS quotes Emmanuel Gilyard, a lawyer at the Shearman Sterling bureau, who underlined that the case became a ‘mega-arbitration’.

The claim was lodged by Gibraltar-based Group Menatep Limited (GML) - the company used by Russia’s once richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky to manage Yukos.

Russia has until January 2015 to pay the compensation; otherwise it will start being charged interest. It is expected Russia will appeal the decision in the Netherlands.

"I am delighted to confirm that those final awards, which were unanimous, are very favorable to the claimants," Tim Osborne, director of the GML group of shareholders which brought the action, told Reuters.

Former Yukos shareholders said on Monday they had not ruled out the possibility of a lawsuit against Rosneft and its shareholders, including BP, for their role in the redistribution of Yukos’ assets. Osborne had previously said that if the Russian state refuses to pay the compensation, then the shareholders could file a lawsuit against BP as a Rosneft shareholder.

“There is no reason to think Russia will not fulfill its international obligations. But if this were to happen, the New York Convention, which obligates 150 signature states to work together to ensure the arbitration ruling is upheld – would come in effect,” said Osborne

Rosneft released a statement on Monday following the ruling, saying that it does not consider itself liable in the Yukos case as it acted in accordance with Russian law in its acquisition of the company’s assets.

“Rosneft does not bear any responsibility in the published ruling,” said the statement. “Rosneft believes that its acquisition of Yukos’ assets was conducted in accordance with the applicable laws.”

In 2003 Russian authorities accused the management of the country’s largest oil company at the time of corruption. A number of senior figures in the company were subsequently found guilty of fraud and tax evasion and were sentenced to jail.

As a result, Yukos went bankrupt and its assets were absorbed by the state oil company Rosneft. Soon after the bankruptcy the company’s shareholders applied to The Hague International Arbitration Court, claiming $100 billion in compensation.

As part of the case, three separate lawsuits by former Yukos shareholders were filed by Hulley Enterprises Limited (Cyprus), Yukos Universal Limited (Isle of Man) and Veteran Petroleum Limited (Cyprus).

The court ruled that $39.97 billion of the compensation should go to Hulley Enterprises, $1.85 billion to Yukos Universal and $8.2 billion for Veteran Petroleum Limited. The Veteran Petroleum fund acts in the interest of former Yukos employees and should receive another $8.2 billion.


http://rt.com/business/176064-yukos-russia-50bn-damages/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

sepheronx wrote:Russia is still fighting this case. But I agree, just state that because it was not done through a Russian court but was done through a western court all at the same time these political moves from US and EU are happening, they can claim it is being politically motivated and not pay. What will court do? No point losing $50B cause of some sort of bad business with a Russian oligarch. Why not go after him for the $50B? Cause it is a sanctioned Rosneft.

Actually, yes, because Rosneft is sanctioned through the western banks, say they cant pay it due to the bank sanctions on them and they operate with a sanctioned bank.

Too bad for the losers. You get what you deserve with bad investments. In US, you lose your shirt and cant sue. When it is towards Russia, you can sue them for anything.

Hague court had no authority in Yukos case, ruling politicized – Moscow



The Hague’s arbitration court was not legally empowered to view the case of Yukos Oil Company v. Russia, and the court’s “one-sided” ruling disregards previous Strasbourg court decisions on the issue, the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement.

READ MORE: 'Mega-arbitration’: Court orders Russia to pay $50bn in Yukos case

Viewing the case, filed by shareholders of former Russian oil giant Yukos against the Russian government, was not in the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague, as Russia has not ratified the Energy Charter Treaty, the ministry said on Monday.

The statement, following the court’s sensational Monday ruling that ordered Russia to pay $50 billion in damages, also provided a detailed list of issues, which, according to the ministry, make the decision “opportunistic” and “politically biased.”

First of all, The Hague court ignored the previous decisions of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which in September 2011 ruled that the Russian authorities had carried out “legitimate” and not politically motivated actions against Yukos “to counter the company’s tax evasion,” the ministry noted. The ruling contradicted Yukos shareholders’ claims that the company’s assets were purposefully expropriated by Moscow.

The Russian Finance Ministry meanwhile blasted the arbitration ruling as based on “one-sided investigation with one-sided application of evidence.”

The Hague court in effect reviewed the decisions of Russian courts on Yukos “as if the arbitration court was an additional authority for appealing the court orders,” the ministry said. It has made “theoretical speculations not supported by evidence” over the motivation of the Russian authorities’ actions in the case of Yukos, it added.

The international body failed to note that the people who controlled Yukos, including the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky released from jail in December, were apparently aware of financial machinations aimed at a mass-scale tax evasion in favor of the company, the ministry stressed. The tax evasion scheme, which involved the creation of numerous bogus companies, was not properly considered in the court.



The arbitration court went as far as to judge “what Russian tax legislation should be like” as opposed to what it required in reality, the ministry said. The court refused to pass several controversial issues on taxes for review by Russian, UK or Cyprus competent authorities despite relying on the Energy Charter Treaty that outlines a need for such reviews, it added.

While in effect saying The Hague court decision was not legally binging for Moscow, the ministry added that “the Russian Federation will challenge the arbitration court’s decisions in the courts of the Netherlands.”

According to the ministry, “the arbitration court failed to approach the adjudication with common sense, which is required from the judges in such situations,” which resulted in an unobjective and biased decision.

“Such an approach undermines the authority of the Arbitration court and the Energy Charter Treaty, which are being applied in increasingly politicized manner and, as in this case, have become the objects of abuse on behalf of domestic investors trying to evade taxes,” the ministry said.

ECHR is expected to announce a fresh decision on Yukos’ multi-billion dollar claim against Russia on Thursday, as the defunct company’s shareholders have filed a separate application with the Strasbourg court, Reuters reported.

http://rt.com/business/176200-moscow-hague-yukos-ruling/utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

GarryB wrote:
I never said coal was clean.

It is, however an energy source and there is rather more coal than oil around the place.

Burning coal will change the climate... you might not have noticed but Russia is a cold country so climate change might not be so bad for them...

There are places in Japan where people wear face masks because the air pollution is so bad. There are plenty of places throughout asia that are the same or worse.

Hahaha.... the western world has polluted the world, and actually does worse than pollute the air with a little CO2... they spread consumerism.

This comment shows your simplistic selfish ignorant view of climate change and its effects of different people around the globe and omnipresent consequences.

There's more to valueing a climate's beauty than a place to sit in a tropical beach snorting coke surrounded by hookers.

And I can't believe you of all people hold this thinking.

Just because people are too ignorant to wear them doesn't meen the air is shit there. Take NovoKuznetsk for example. Its internationally rated as one of the most toxic inhabited cities in the world. The rate of birth defects is thousnds of times higher than normal there.

And of course 2 wrongs don't make a right. Just because some other country has shit enviroment and does nothing about it doesn't mean russia shouldn't too.

As I said, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

Budapest (AFP) - Thousands of Hungarians protested Friday at what they see as the country's move towards Russia in the latest demonstration against the government of controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The crowd, estimated to be over 5,000 by an AFP photographer, brandished placards condemning Orban, whose support suffered a plunge in polls at the end of 2014 despite securing three election wins earlier in the year.

The demonstrators, who gathered in front of the Budapest opera house, voiced concern over what they see as Hungary drifting away from the West to forge closer ties with its former Communist ruler.

"It is disturbing to see that the Orban government is exposing Hungary to Russian influence," Robert Gombkoto, a 61-year-old manager, told AFP, citing a 10 billion euro ($12 billion) loan from Russia to Hungary to expanding a nuclear plant.

sepheronx wrote:This was called out month or two ago about how west would stage protests in Hungary.  Seems that this ended up as correct.

Wonder if the other nations will wake up to this.  5K people in a country of almost 10M is a joke.  These people should be ashamed of themselves.

magnumcromagnon wrote:

sepheronx wrote:This was called out month or two ago about how west would stage protests in Hungary.  Seems that this ended up as correct.

Wonder if the other nations will wake up to this.  5K people in a country of almost 10M is a joke.  These people should be ashamed of themselves.

Yes, I was the one who pointed this out. John McCain wants to destroy Viktor Orban because he's friendly to Putin and Russia. Similarly the left-wing govt. in the Czech Republic is 'Russia-friendly' too, so they might be on the 'hit-list' soon enough.