British Court To Hear Russian Case Over Kyiv's $3 Billion Loan Default

Britain's High Court in January will hear a case Moscow has filed against Ukraine for defaulting on a $3 billion eurobond, a deputy Russian finance minister has said.

"The court hearing has been set for January 17-20. The hearing will last three days," Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said on September 8.

Russia provided Ukraine with the $3 billion loan in late 2013 when Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovych was president. But Yanukovych was ousted by a popular uprising two months later.

After failing to reach a settlement on repaying the loan, Kyiv stopped making debt payments in December, arguing that Moscow lent Yanukovych the money as a kind of bribe.

Moscow, which is suffering from a protracted recession, took its case to court rather than grant Kyiv a discount on repayment of the loans. It filed a lawsuit in London in February.

It is one of several major lawsuits lodged in various international courts between the two former allies turned arch-foes, which include disputes over natural-gas contract prices, the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, and war damage in east Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists are fighting Kyiv government forces.

Based on reporting by AFP and TASS