30 Oct 2014 11:20

AFK Sistema says federal authorities never owned Bashneft

MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - AFK Sistema says the Russian federal authorities have never owned Bashneft stock.

"The stock has never been owned by the Russian Federation. How can they seek to regain that property if they never owned those shares in the first place?" a company representative said in court on Thursday.

He added that Bashneft belonged to the regional authorities, which made an independent decision on a disposition of the company.

"One cannot agree that eleven normative acts of the Republic of Bashkortostan were illegal," the AFK Sistema jurist said.