MOSCOW, April 23 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. On May 16 the Moscow District Federal Commercial Court will hear the cassation appeal by Moskva Airlines (former Atlant Soyuz) against the lawsuit awarding $84.3 million to state-owned corporation Russian Technologies.

In September 2011, the Moscow Commercial Court upheld Russian Technologies' lawsuit in full. In 2008, the company acted as a guarantor of the Atlant Soyuz airline for a credit issued by Gazprombank. The corporation subsequently turned to the courts to recover all losses.

In February, the ruling was confirmed by the appellate court and thus came into effect.

At the defendant's request, the case was held behind closed doors. Gazprombank was brought into the case as a third party.

The Moscow Commercial Court has upheld the claims of two similar lawsuits by Russian Technologies against Moskva Airlines to recover circa 531 million rubles ($18.01 million) under the credit from the Bank of Moscow and 180.5 million rubles ($6.12 million) under VTB Bank's credit.

In April the commercial court upheld a further lawsuit by the state corporation against the airline. The claim amounted to 574.2 million rubles ($19.48 million) and is connected with a loan contract for 24 metric tons of fuel.

Moskva Airlines was founded in June 1993 as Atlant-Soyuz Airlines. In 2007 private investors owned a 75-percent stake in the company and the remaining 25-percent stake belonged to Moscow. On September 17, 2010, the airline was renamed Moscow Airlines.

Due to its worsening financial situation, the airline tried to reduce its number of flights in December 2010 and halted ticket sales. The airline ceased its operation in January 2011.