Russia welcomes Tashkent court ruling in MTS subsidiary case
MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has welcomed a Tashkent court ruling for the return of property seized from the Uzbek company Uzdunrobita, a subsidiary of OAO MTS, and expressed hope that the remaining issues regarding Uzdunrobita will also be settled.
In a statement released on Monday, the ministry said that it hopes that the remaining issues in the case would be settled in a "mutually acceptable way".
On November 8, the Tashkent City Court upheld Uzdunrobita's appeal against the seizure and subsequent handover to the Republic of Uzbekistan of its movable and immovable property.
"At the same time, the court upheld about $500 million worth of financial claims filed against MTS-Uzbekistan and ordered it to repay that sum within 8 months by equal installments," the statement says.
Earlier, the Uzbek Prosecutor General's Office accused Uzdunrobita top managers of embezzlement and of "setting up a criminal group to misappropriate uncontrolled profits.
In June, the Prosecutor General's Office sanctioned searches in the company's offices, the seizure of documents and the arrest and mass interrogation of employees.
On July 17, MTS was forced to freeze its operations in Uzbekistan in line with demands by the State Communications Inspections, shutting off communications services to more than 9.5 million cell phone users across the country.
In August, a Tashkent court upheld a request by the Uzbek Communications and Information Agency to suspend all of Uzdunrobita's telecommunications licenses, which was followed by the confiscation of the company's property and assets in early September.
The previous financial claims filed against the company exceeded $1 billion, which approximates total MTS investments in Uzbekistan.
