MOSCOW, December 22 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – The Moscow City Court has upheld the lower court’s ruling to collect from  Natalia Potanina, the ex-wife of billionaire Vladimir Potanin, 78 million rubles ($1.1 mln) in damages in favor of Eco Invest company, Potanina’s press office told RAPSI on Tuesday.

The court therefore dismissed an appeal filed by Natalia Potanina.

At the end of July, Moscow's Presnensky District Court ruled in favor of the company and ordered Natalia Potanina to reimburse Eco Invest over its failure to sell a house in the village of Nemchinovo, Moscow Region.

The hearings on the suit were suspended in September 2014 after Potanina filed a claim with Moscow's Tverskoy District Court seeking to nullify the sales agreement. However, the court ruled in favor of Eco Invest, a company controlled by Vladimir Potanin.

The businessman was granted a divorce from his wife in February 2014.

In late April 2015, Natalia Potanina filed a lawsuit for ownership of 50 percent of her ex-husband’s stake in Norilsk Nickel and half of Interros International, which holds their other assets.

Under the Russian Family Code, the property acquired during a marriage is considered community property and therefore should be divided into equal parts in a divorce.