MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld  dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the Moscow government to cancel an investment project for the renovation of part of the Kremlin Embankment signed with O.Nick’s, a company reportedly controlled by Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky’s Mirax Group, according to court records.

In late March,the Moscow Commercial Court rejected the lawsuit to cancel a contract that the city of Moscow signed in 2001.

The plaintiff argued that the contract was not valid because it included a federal monument, the Alyabyev House, and hence violated the law on cultural heritage (monuments of history and culture). Furthermore, the city signed the contract even though it does not own Alyabyev House.

The plaintiff also said that one of the properties was burdened with a legal estate liability when the contract was signed and that the city needed to terminate lease contracts with its tenants. Another property, a building, had 113 tenants.

Under the renovation project, several luxury apartment buildings and a Small Business and Crafts Center, with an aggregate floor space of 22,000 square meters, were to be built near the Borovitskaya Tower on the west side of the Kremlin. Maxim Temnikov, former top manager of Mirax Group, assessed the investment in the project at $209 million.

Polonsky was charged in Russia in absentia in July 2012 as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over $175 million from investors in an up-market condominium project in central Moscow. He was recently deported from Cambodia and placed in detention.