Mr Rinat Akhmetov Knocks European Court of Human Rights for Assets

Kommersant reported that Ukraine’s richest oligarch & steel tycoon Mr Rinat Akhmetov has filed a lawsuit against Russia in European Court of Human Rights citing grievous violations in Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian property and resources since the start of Moscow’s invasion in late February. MrAkhmetov’s System Capital Management group said that the lawsuit seeks relief for Russia’s blockading, looting, destruction and diversion of grain and metals. Mr Akhmetov said “Russia’s crimes against Ukraine and our people are egregious, and those guilty of them must be held liable. Evil cannot go unpunished and those guilty of them must be held liable. These barbaric actions must be stopped, and Russia must pay in full. I believe in justice, and I am fighting for it. This lawsuit is one of the first international legal steps against Russia to stop their ongoing crimes, destruction of the Ukrainian economy and the plundering of Ukrainian assets.” Kremlin spokesman Mr Dmitry Peskov brushed off questions about Akhmetov’s lawsuit Monday, saying Russia had withdrawn from the court’s jurisdiction and would not recognize any of its rulings. He said “The answer here is completely obvious.” The tycoon’s lawsuit comes after Ukraine’s justice department filed a separate suit at the same court last month seeking USD 80 billion in compensation from the Kremlin over the war. A native of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, one of the focal points of Russia’s ongoing invasion, Mr Akhmetov claims a number of steel manufacturing plants, coal mines and other businesses in eastern and southern Ukraine have been stolen by Russian forces since the start of its invasion in February. Metainvest has also reported serious damage to its assets, including the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian forces in March and April as the city’s last Ukrainian forces sheltered there. The company said that more than 234,000 tonnes of steel manufactured by its Ilyich Steel and Azovstal factories had been in storage when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, of which about 28,000 tonnes were already loaded onto four ships in the port of Mariupol. The company told the Financial Times that 2,500 tons of that steel had been taken by a Russian-owned ship to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Mr Rinat Akhmetov Knocks European Court of Human Rights for Assets

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