Russia has appealed a Hague court decision in favor of former shareholders of the defunct oil firm Yukos that orders Moscow to pay $50 billion in arbitration.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on February 6 that it had filed three petitions with a district court in The Hague, the Netherlands, one week earlier asking for the court to overturn July rulings by The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration that Russia's nationalization of Yukos violated international laws.
Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 for unpaid taxes and later jailed, while his company was forcibly broken up and acquired by the Russian government and state companies.
The $50 billion ruling last year was the largest arbitration award ever granted by a court.
The former Yukos shareholders awaiting payment from Russia are seeking court decisions in the United States and EU that would allow Russian state assets abroad to be seized if Moscow does not pay the $50 billion.
