MOSCOW, June 18 - RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has ceased proceedings in the Severnaya Verf shipyard’s appeal against the judgment dismissing its claims against VTB bank for $36 million in damages.

The court has dropped the litigation as the shipyard withdrew its appeal.

The Moscow Commercial Court dismissed the claims for 1.47 billion rubles ($36 million) from the bank on March 1. It also turned down the shipyard's request for a loan promised under a September 8 executive government order.

Alfa-Bank, VTB and Sberbank were obligated to grant a loan amounting to 22 billion rubles ($652 million) in 2011 for the company to fulfill a defense order.

The government was to act as the guarantor for the loans to the shipyard, totaling $427.32 million from Alfa-Bank and $97.21 million from VTB.
Severnaya Verf claimed that it had been in correspondence with VTB and Alfa-Bank, according to concluded loan agreements. As the contracts had been finalized and signed, the shipyard requested the loans and damages as compensation for the losses incurred from being unable to make payments to contractors on time.
The Severnaya Verf shipyard is part of the United Industrial Corporation (UIC) owned by former Senator Sergei Pugachyov. Along with his other shipbuilding assets, it was pledged under 32 billion ruble loans issued to Mezhprombank, which later went bankrupt.
In February, the Moscow Commercial Court upheld the Central Bank's lawsuit against the depositors of Severnaya Verf shares. The bank sought to enforce the shares pledge.