Russia looking at how to protect its rights in U.S. Naftogaz lawsuit - Kremlin

Russia will look at all possible ways to protect its legal rights in a case initiated by the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz in the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. Naftogaz said it had taken legal action against Russia in the United States to try to recover $5 billion awarded to it by an arbitration court in The Hague as compensation for assets expropriated by Russia in Crimea.

Russia will look at all possible ways to protect its legal rights in a case initiated by the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz in the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Naftogaz said it had taken legal action against Russia in the United States to try to recover $5 billion awarded to it by an arbitration court in The Hague as compensation for assets expropriated by Russia in Crimea. "All the legal details of this move will be worked on and ways will be considered to defend our legal rights," Peskov told a briefing.

Russia seized and unilaterally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, in a move not recognized internationally. Among the Naftogaz assets it seized was the Chornomornaftogaz unit, which produced significant amounts of natural gas from the Black Sea.

Naftogaz said in April that the Arbitration Tribunal

at the Permanent Court of Arbitration had ordered Russia to pay Naftogaz $5 billion in compensation for unlawfully expropriating its Crimean assets.