Kazakhstanʼs Ministry of Justice refused to recover $1.4 billion from “Gazprom” in favor of “Naftogaz”
- Author:
- Svitlana Kravchenko
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Kazakhstan will not comply with the court decision that allowed Ukrainian “Naftogaz” to recover $1.4 billion from Russian “Gazprom”.
This was reported by the Minister of Justice of Kazakhstan Yerlan Sarsembayev, Tengrinews.kz reports.
On May 21, the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) court in Kazakhstan allowed the forced recovery of about $1.4 billion from the Russian company “Gazprom” in favor of NJSC “Naftogaz” of Ukraine. This was the first such court decision in a foreign country.
However, the head of the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan says that the courtʼs decision is not final and has not yet entered into force, because the order was adopted without the participation of the defendant. “Gazprom” has the right to appeal the document, after which the court will consider the case with the participation of both parties.
According to Sarsembayev, Kazakhstan will not become "a transit platform for the execution of decisions that have no legal connection with its jurisdiction".
He also noted that in this case there are no key grounds for consideration by the AIFC: “Gazprom” is not a member of the AIFC, the subject of the dispute is not related to the center in Astana, and the parties did not agree to refer the issue to this court.
Sarsembayev recalled that Kazakhstan is a party to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. At the same time, their enforcement is carried out in accordance with national procedural legislation.
In the case of Kazakhstan, this is the Civil Procedure Code, which stipulates that an application for enforcement is filed at the place of consideration of the dispute, the place of registration of the debtor or the location of his property. Since the location of “Gazprom” is known, these are the norms that are decisive for the procedure and cannot be ignored, the minister added.
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