Ties with Russia in the past cannot be grounds for illegal actions of the Ukrainian authorities against foreign investors. Taras Dumych, lawyer of British investor Tamaz Somkhivshili states this after the meeting of the Northern Economic Court of Appeal yesterday, at which it was decided to postpone the case on the investment dispute between the KCSA and Kyiv Terminal LLC, the beneficiary of which is the British investor.
Taras Dumych called inappropriate allegations of press representatives present at the meeting that his client, who was the founder of the Russian company Lukoil together with other Russian businessmen, Vagit Alikperov and Leonid Fedun. He also pointed out that American companies and top officials of the Ukrainian state - President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov – actively cooperated with Russian business before the war.
“Lukoil in Ukraine was one of the largest energy companies, with American shareholder Konoko Phillips. This is a reputable company. You have complaints about the person who did business 20 years ago. Just like Ukraine, he did business with a respectable company. Now you say that because of this, my client is guilty of something. He did not perform in the sauna in front of Yanukovych and Medvedev,” Taras Dumych told the reporters.
The lawyer of Kyiv Terminal also criticized the journalists’ questions about Tamaz Somkhishvili's alleged Russian citizenship and called the allegations about his client’s long-term residence in Russia strange.
Didn’t President Volodymyr Zelenskyy live in Russia and didn’t he earn money there? And didn’t Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov work in a law firm that served Putin 10 years ago. He (my client) is not related to the Russian Federation. Once, 20 years ago, he was," said Taras Dumych.
As it became known, yesterday the Northern Economic Court of Appeal decided to postpone the hearings to December 20 in the case concerning the investment dispute between the Kyiv authorities and Kyiv Terminal LLC regarding the termination of the investment agreement on reconstruction of the Kharkiv Square of the capital. The reason for the postponement of the hearings was new documents received from the applicant and the respondent.
It is worth mentioning that since 2018, the beneficial owner of the Ukrainian enterprise Kyiv-Terminal LLC and the long-term British investor in Ukraine, Tamaz Somkhishvili has not been able to compensate for their losses of $ 98.5 million caused as a result of the termination by the Kyiv authorities of the investment agreement on reconstruction of Kharkiv Square. The relevant agreement was concluded back in 2007, but the investor was unable to exercise his rights due to numerous bureaucratic obstacles. The Kyiv authorities terminated the agreement in 2013, recognizing the investor’s rights to compensation for losses.
On November 8, 2021, Tamaz Somkhishvili sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine a notification of the dispute and a proposal to resolve it peacefully in accordance with the government agreement between Ukraine and Great Britain on promotion and mutual protection of investments. As stated in the notification, if the investor and the state fail to reach an amicable resolution of the dispute, the investor will be ready to initiate arbitration proceedings against Ukraine. Currently, the investor successfully defends his rights in Ukrainian courts, having won the first instance and obtained the decision of the Supreme Court to review the case in the Court of Appeal