Russia to appeal Dutch court's decision on Yukos payout

Russia will ask the Dutch Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's decision denying Moscow's appeal against a $50-billion arbitration award to shareholders of the now-defunct oil producer Yukos, the TASS state news agency said on Tuesday.

Russia will ask the Dutch Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's decision denying Moscow's appeal against a $50-billion arbitration award to shareholders of the now-defunct oil producer Yukos, the TASS state news agency said on Tuesday. After years of legal wrangling, the Amsterdam appeals court denied on Feb. 20 Russia's appeal against the award it had been ordered to pay in 2014.

"The decision ... will be appealed to the supreme court of the Netherlands," the agency cited the office of the Russian prosecutor general as saying. Yukos collapsed in 2006 after oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the government began demanding billions of dollars in alleged back taxes that led ultimately to the company's seizure by the state.

Exiled billionaire Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in prison after being convicted of tax evasion and fraud, charges he denied, and now lives in London. He is not a party to the case.

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