Russian court orders record breaking $54 billion Yukos compo payout

An international court has ordered Russia to pay shareholders of the defunct oil giant Yukos a record $54.10 billion in compensation.

Tim Osborne

Tim Osborne, the CEO of GML Limited and formerly a shareholder in oil giant Yukos. (AFP/Leon Neal)

Russia has vowed to contest the ruling by the arbitration court in The Hague, claiming the state had no jurisdiction over the fate of the company that had been owned by jailed Kremlin critic and ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Yukos was once Russia's biggest oil company but was broken up after Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003, shortly after President Vladimir Putin warned Russia's growing class of oligarchs against meddling in politics.

Prosecutors say the court ruled that Moscow had forced Yukos into bankruptcy with outsized tax claims, and then sold its assets to state-owned firms led by energy giant Rosneft for political purposes.

The main shareholder and claimant in the case Tim Osborne says the tribunal "unanimously confirmed that the attacks by the Russian Federation on the Yukos oil company... were politically motivated."

Russia's economy is already in the spotlight over the escalating crisis in Ukraine, with companies close to Putin's regime bracing for tougher Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the conflict.


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By Abby Dinham


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