The District Court of the Inner City of Vienna has allowed Naftogaz Group to seize Russian assets in Austria, enforcing an arbitration award of about $5 billion for the Ukrainian state-owned company.
In April 2023 Naftogaz won compensation before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague over what the company said was Russia’s “illegal expropriation” of its assets in Crimea shortly after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
“In particular, the [Viennese] court authorized the encumbrance of over 20 real estate properties owned by Russia in Austria, which will be sold through auction”, Naftogaz said in a statement on its website. “These assets alone are estimated to be worth more than EUR 120 million.
“Similar legal actions are ongoing in other jurisdictions”.
Rigzone sent comment requests to the Russian government’s Press Service and Information Department and Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Austrian law firm DORDA represented Naftogaz before the Viennese court.
The April 2023 arbitration award in the Netherlands concerned a case brought by Naftogaz October 2016. According to Naftogaz, the Dutch Supreme Court recently dismissed a cassation appeal by Moscow to overturn an earlier ruling by the PCA that the tribunal had jurisdiction to hear Naftogaz’s claims and that Russia was liable for the expropriation of the company’s assets.
In October 2024 Naftogaz said a Finnish court had granted its motion to freeze certain Russian-owned assets in Finland including real estate, in enforcement of the PCA’s 2023 award. The freeze order by the Helsinki District Court involved tens of millions of dollars, Naftogaz said then.
In April 2025 Naftogaz said a French court allowed it to seize Russian assets in French territory pursuant to the 2023 ruling.
Announcing the Paris Judicial Court’s grant of a leave to enforce, Naftogaz said it had “registered mortgages” on several Russian state-owned assets in France valued over EUR 120 million.
In June 2025 Naftogaz said it had won a Swiss arbitration award of $1.37 billion against Russia’s Gazprom and that it asked the majority state-owned company to fulfil the payment.
“The amount includes the principal debt for gas transit services under the 2019 agreement, as well as delay interest and full compensation for legal expenses incurred by Naftogaz”, Naftogaz said at the time.
“Should Gazprom fail to comply voluntarily, Naftogaz plans to initiate asset recovery measures targeting the Russian company’s holdings abroad”.
Gazprom has not responded to Rigzone’s comment request.
In other news Naftogaz said it had paid UAH 44.4 billion ($1.07 billion) in taxes to Ukraine in the first half of 2025, accounting for nearly seven percent of the country’s tax revenue.
“Of this amount, UAH 40.7 billion went to the state budget and another UAH 3.7 billion to local budgets”, said Naftogaz chief executive Sergii Koretskyi.
“Supporting the country’s financial stability is an integral part of our responsibility as a company operating in a strategic sector of the economy”.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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