The Russian conglomerate Sistema announced on December 8 that it has filed a 330.5-billion-ruble ($5.6-billion) lawsuit against the oil company Rosneft over the latter’s acquisition of the oil company Bashneft.
In a press release, Sistema explained that it's forced to take retaliatory measures to defend its interests. The amount claimed in the lawsuit is more than double the amounted Rosneft claimed in its two previous lawsuits against Sistema (which total about 300 billion rubles).
In May 2017, Rosneft sued Sistema for losses it blames on Sistema’s “organization-financial manipulations” during the sale of Bashneft, which Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin estimates cost his company 170 billion rubles ($2.9 billion). The court sided with Rosneft, but awarded the company a smaller sum (136.4 billion rubles). Sistema has appealed the ruling.
On December 7, Rosneft filed a new lawsuit against Sistema for 131.6 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) — the amount of dividends allegedly withdrawn from Bashneft to benefit Sistema.