The court seized the shares of the Bashkir Soda Company
The Bashkir Arbitration Court has seized the ordinary registered shares of the Bashkir Soda Company JSC, according to the message on the court’s official portal. Interim measures were imposed on the shares belonging to the defendant in the claim of the General Prosecutor’s Office — Regional Fund JSC, Bashkirskaya Khimiya JSC and Bashkirskaya Khimiya Trading House LLC, Forbes reports.
On August 31, the court accepted the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office for proceedings. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for October 14. JSC “Bashkir Soda Company” is involved in the claim as a third party.
The company’s difficulties began after Vladimir Putin drew attention to the protest movement in Bashkiria. The local population opposed the plant’s plans to start limestone mining on the shihan Kushtau. One of the shihans – Shakhtau – has already been razed to the ground by the company. Activists feared that the same fate awaited Kushtau. In its place, clashes between protestants and law enforcement officers began.
On August 26, Russian president instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office to verify the legality of the transaction, as a result of which the government lost control over the Bashkir Soda Company JSC. He suggested that at the moment the company’s shareholders are not planning to develop the enterprise in the long term, but to pump out as much money as possible from it. Regarding the protests, Putin supported the population.
Two days later, on August 28, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit. During the investigation, it was possible to establish violations of the law on privatization. As a result, the transfer of rights to the enterprise was carried out against the will of the government. The authorities of Bashkiria also stated that a crime was committed during the privatization process by a group of officials. The company’s stock of shares was resold among buyers, and the country suffered losses of at least 34 billion rubles. The President of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, said that he was joining the claim of the General Prosecutor’s Office as a third party and, on behalf of the state, put forward his own demands for the return of the BSC to the ownership of Bashkiria and compensation for financial damage.