Bashkir Arbitration Court refused Sistema’s motion to recuse judge

UFA, 21 July 2017. /Bashinform News Agency/. On July 20, in Ufa the Rosneft’s claim hearing against Sistema JSFC continued. Today, the defendant's representatives announced the recusal to judge Irina Nurislamova, expressing doubts about her impartiality. As the Sistema representatives said, the judge "shifted a burden of proving damages to the defendants, made a decision to impose disproportionate security measures in the amount of 185 billion rubles in the amount of the claim of 170.6 billion rubles, tries to speed up the trial, gives preference to the arguments of the plaintiff, did not upheld a single petition of the defendant, refused to conduct an independent economic expertise".

Representatives of Rosneft opposed the judge recusal. They believe that the opponents are trying to delay the consideration of the claim. "According to the interim measures, the appellate court session is already appointed and now another trial is going on. The plaintiffs declared only three motions, and all of them objectively were subject to sustaining. Nothing prevents the defendants from appealing separate rulings, with which they disagree. At the same time, Sistema deliberately involves the third parties to delay the proceedings. As for the "burden of proving damages", the court requested the defendants to refute the evidence of the plaintiffs. Sistema JSFC proposes when calculating the value of assets to take into account the stake transferred to Bashneft at the market value, and a block of shares transferred to Sistema at its book value. However, in the document prepared by auditors of the "Stremlenie" company commissioned by Sistema, it is clearly stated that it was the market value of one Sistema-Invest stake that was evaluated. This evaluation was used for the purposes of determining the value of property involved in the reorganization, and at that time it was sufficient for Sistema JSFC. The defendant once again tries to confuse the court, to appoint unnecessary judicial financial and economic expertise, thereby delaying the proceeding", Rosneft representatives expressed their viewpoint.

The Deputy Chairman of the Arbitration Court of Bashkortostan Maxim Bobylev rejected the defendant’s motion to recuse the judge.