Siemens Files Appeal With Russian Supreme Court Over Crimean Turbines Case

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2018) Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies (SGTT), a Russian subsidiary of German conglomerate Siemens, has filed an appeal with the Russian Supreme Court against the rulings of three lower courts that refused to open a case against subsidiaries of Russian state corporation Rostec over the allegedly illegal deliveries of Siemens turbines to Crimea, according to the Russian database of arbitration cases.

According to the database, the SGTT appeal was filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday and has yet to be processed.

In a case filed last summer against Rostec's subsidiaries, joint stock company Technopromexport and limited liability company Technopromexportand, Siemens demanded that the March 10, 2015 and October 16, 2015 deals between the SGTT and the two Russian companies for the deliveries of turbines be recognized as illegal. It also demanded that the limited liability company be required to return four turbines to SGTT.

The subsidiaries, in turn, filed a countersuit, demanding that three provisions of the contract between STGT and Technopromexport be invalidated. The disputed clauses gave SGTT the right to refuse to execute the contract if this threatened to violate the EU sanctions pertaining to the supply of energy equipment to Crimea and also required buyers to install the turbines on the Taman peninsula rather than place them in Crimea.

In December 2017, the Moscow Arbitration Court completely dismissed both claims.

In July 2017, Siemens decided to annul a power plant supply license agreement and suspend power equipment deliveries to Russian state firms after the company said it learned that four of its gas turbines intended for a project in Russia's southern Taman were moved to Crimea, where Russia was building two thermal plants.

The Russian authorities, in turn, stated that the turbines were delivered to Crimea legally since they had been redesigned � specifically, the turbines' power had been increased � with the use of Russian technology. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stated that the turbines supplied to Crimea were of Russian origin. Nevertheless, in August 2017, the European Union added three Russian nationals and three companies involved in the turbines scandal to the sanctions list, saying that their actions "undermined Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence."