Russia's RusChemAlliance sues five European banks over aborted gas project

Linde

17/09/2024 08:59

MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russian company
RusChemAlliance has filed new lawsuits against five European
banks that stopped financing the construction of a gas project
in Russia after the West imposed sanctions against Moscow over
the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
    The lawsuits, all filed with St Petersburg's Arbitration
Court on Sept. 16, were addressed to Italian bank UniCredit
 CRDI.MI  and German lenders Deutsche Bank  DBKGn.DE ,
Commerzbank  CBKG.DE , Bayerische Landesbank and Landesbank
BadenWurttemberg, with no additional details given. 
    RusChemAlliance and Commerzbank declined to comment. The
other banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
    RusChemAlliance, a joint venture 50% owned by Russian gas
producer Gazprom  GAZP.MM , has filed several other suits
against European banks after German industrial gases company
Linde  LIN.DE  stopped work on a liquefied natural gas (LNG)
plant at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga in 2022.
    The St Petersburg court has frozen some Linde assets in
Russia and ordered that some of its assets outside Russia be
frozen, too, as it tries to recoup funds lost over the gas
processing plant's abrupt construction halt. 
    The same court has previously ordered all five banks to pay
damages.

 (Reporting by Alexander Marrow in London and Vladimir Soldatkin
in Moscow; additional reporting by Tom Sims and Valentina Za;
editing by Jason Neely)
 ((alexander.marrow@thomsonreuters.com;))