Claims totaling $99 bln filed against Russia - presidential rep in State Duma
MOSCOW. June 8 (Interfax) - Claims totaling $99 billion have been filed against Russia in arbitration courts, Russian presidential representative in the State Duma Garry Minkh said.
"There are 37 ongoing arbitral proceedings, and claims totaling $99 billion have been filed against the Russian Federation within their framework," Minkh said at a Duma meeting on Tuesday.
"The sum was smaller, $35 billion, a few years ago," he said.
Currently, there is an upward trend related, in particular, to Crimea's reunification with Russia, Minkh said.
Minkh made the statement as two presidential bills were undergoing first readings in the State Duma.
One of the bills amends the Russian Law on the Prosecution Service to augment the service's duties with representing and protecting Russian interests in "interstate bodies, foreign and international (interstate) courts, and foreign and international arbitration courts (arbitral tribunals)," and the European Court of Human Rights. The prosecution service will establish a special foreign affairs division to that end.
The new legislation also allows the prosecution service to ask the Russian Constitutional Court to consider whether the ruling of an international court or body is enforceable from the angle of the constitution.
Such motions can be based on the resolutions of other authorities or the prosecution service itself "regarding the impossibility of enforcing such rulings due to fact that, in parts compelling the Russian Federation to take measures toward their enforcement, those resolutions are based on the provisions of an international agreement of the Russian Federation in an interpretation that might lead to their discrepancy with the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation or contradict the foundations of public law and order in the Russian Federation."