MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The press service of the MIA Rossiya Segodnya international news agency denied on Thursday media reports on arrests of its office building in Paris in connection with Yukos shareholders lawsuit.
"Contrary to media reports, MIA Rossiya Segodnya does not own any building in Paris. The agency's representative office has rented facilities belonging to Goszagransobstvennost [Russia's agency that manages residential and non-residential state-owned real estate property abroad] to carry out its operations," the press service said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Rossiya Segodnya's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, confirmed that French authorities had arrested the account of the agency's office in France. She added that the agency was doing everything possible to prevent any interruptions to its radio and online broadcasts in other countries.
Yukos was declared bankrupt in 2006 by Moscow's Court of Arbitration. State-run Rosneft subsequently purchased about 80 percent of the company's assets.
Yukos's stakeholders claimed that Moscow had illegally forced the company out of business in order to allow Rosneft to obtain its assets at knockdown prices and become the country’s largest oil producer.
The court in the Hague awarded three companies of former Yukos co-owners $50 billion in compensation from the Russian government.
Russian presidential aide Andrei Belousov said international lawyers are working to protect Russia’s interests and are challenging the Hague court's decision.
