MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Supreme Court on January 18 declined the motion of the Yangel Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro, Ukraine, asking that the decision under which it must pay over one billion rubles to the Russian Defense Ministry be reconsidered, according to court materials.
The Russian Defense Ministry filed a lawsuit against the Ukrainian enterprise in February 2017. The trial was postponed several times.
On March 12, 2018, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered the design bureau to pay the ministry 1.1 billion rubles, including 915.6 million rubles in penalties, 183.6 million rubles in unfounded enrichment, and 3.2 million rubles in interest.
No other details were reported. The case was heard behind closed doors.
The contract envisaged work to prolong the period of operation of the strategic silo-based missile RS-20V Voyevoda (NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan) which was the world's most powerful strategic missile at that time. The work was ordered by the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Yuzhnoye Design Bureau confirmed to Interfax on March 20, 2018 that the 2003 contract with the Russian Defense Ministry had been severed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau due to the ban on military-technical cooperation with Russia imposed by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and the president in August 2014 over "Russian aggression and the annexation of Crimea."
On May 28, 2018, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court granting the Russian Defense Ministry's lawsuit seeking severance of the state contract of August 29, 2003 and the recovery of over one billion rubles from the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau.
The latter appealed the lower courts' decisions to the Russian Supreme Court on November 22, 2018.
The Yangel Yuzhnoye Design Bureau is Ukraine's main scientific center with space technologies. Many of its products and services are exported, including to the EU and the United States.
Until the severance of military-technical cooperation with Russia, Ukrainian aerospace industry enterprises were prolonging the service life of the 15P118M missile system (RS-20V), which is possessed by Russia's RVSN and was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and manufactured by Yuzhmash (both based in Dnipro).