Hague Court Starts Arbitration Over Crimean Gas Station Dispute

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague started considering two arbitral proceedings launched by Ukraine's companies against Russia over gasoline money in the breakaway Crimean region, according to PCA statement.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague has started arbitrating a case filed by Ukrainian companies against Russia over gasoline money in the breakaway Crimean region, a PCA statement said Monday.

Two arbitral proceedings were launched in June 2015 by Ukraine’s largest energy producer Ukrnafta and the second by Stabil LLC and ten others against Russia on accusations that Moscow allegedly breached a 1998 deal with Kiev "by interfering with and ultimately expropriating their investments in petrol stations located in Crimea."

Russia responded in August and September 2015 by refusing to recognize the invoked agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments as a basis for composing an arbitral tribunal, or PCA’s jurisdiction in this case.

Moscow also stressed that its correspondence should not be considered as "consent of the Russian Federation to constitution of an arbitral tribunal, participation in arbitral proceedings, or as procedural actions taken in the framework of the proceedings."

The Hague court has given until June 3, 2016 for all sides to answer its questions with respect to issues of jurisdiction, with a hearing to this effect scheduled for July 11.

Crimea seceded from Ukraine and became part of Russia in March 2014, following a referendum in which 96 percent of those who voted supported the move. The Crimean referendum has not been recognized by the government of Ukraine or its Western allies.