MOSCOW, May 15 (RAPSI) – The Commercial Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan will hear a 106.6 billion ruble lawsuit ($1.9 billion) lodged by Rosneft and Bashneft against AFK Sistema holding company on June 6, according to court records.

The oil companies have filed the claim seeking to collect money from AFK Sistema both with the Moscow Commercial Court and the court in Ufa. On May 10, the Moscow Commercial Court returned the lawsuit to the plaintiffs.

Press service of Rosneft earlier said that claim lawsuit is connected with alleged siphoning of assets. Actions of AFK Sistema allegedly led to decrease of assets at this sum.

According to AFK Sistema, the plaintiffs’ demands are illegal and groundless.

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov.

The company was privatized in 2009, when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema gained control of it.

A court in Moscow ruled that Bashneft had been privatized in violation of law. The Prosecutor General's Office brought a suit to return a 71.6 percent stake in Bashneft to the government. The Moscow Commercial Court ruled on October 30, 2014, in favor of the Prosecutor General's Office.