SEVASTOPOL, January 8. /TASS/. Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky has appropriated the bank accounts of more than 1 million residents of Crimea, said Sergey Menyailo, the governor of Sevastopol, a city and naval base in Crimea. The Court of Arbitration in the Hague is now reviewing Kolomoisky’s claim on protecting his property.

"Kolomoisky filed a lawsuit with the Hague court seeking the return of the infrastructure of Belbek Airport owned by him. However, he modestly forgot to mention that, while leaving the Crimea, his Privatbank took along the bank accounts of more than one million people the Russian authorities were returning to peninsula residents. In the Middle Ages Kolomoisky would have probably had his hands cut off for that, and in our humane days he is even trying to be in litigation (with Russia). Well, let him have legal proceedings!," the governor’s spokesman Kirill Moskalenko quotes Menyailo as saying.

On January 6, the court in the Hague started reviewing the claim of Kolomoisky and the Belbek Airport company against Russia. According to the plaintiffs, Russia has violated its obligations arising from the Russian-Ukrainian agreement on promotion and mutual protection of investment by taking steps that deprived the plaintiffs of their proprietary rights for the passenger terminal in Crimea’s Belbek Airport. Russia did not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Arbitration and did not appoint its representatives at the proceedings.

Russia opened a criminal case against Igor Kolomoisky. He is accused of organizing murders and the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare. On September 3, 2014, Crimea’s State Council (parliament) nationalized the property of Kolomoisky and his affiliated companies located on the Black Sea peninsula. Initially, the list included 65 facilities, then another 19 were added. The proceeds from their sale will go toward compensations to Privatbank depositors.