MOSCOW, July 20 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court announced on Monday that the first hearing in a lawsuit filed by Cypriot company DRGN Ltd to collect over 1 million euros in debt from the Russian Finance Ministry is set for August 13.

Crimea’s parliament and Russian government are codefendants in the suit.

The lawsuit was reportedly filed because Crimea failed to repay a 133 million hryvnias (about $5.65mln) bonded loan issued in June 2011. Kiev-based investment bank Dragon Capital was the placement guarantor, and DRGN Ltd bought 17 million hryvnias’ worth of the bonds.

Crimea sold the bonds in 2011 to finance a solid municipal waste treatment project in Simferopol and the Simferopol Region.

In April, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov told RIA Novosti that the Crimean authorities had appealed to the Federal Security Service (FSB) to investigate the sale of the 2011 bond and the involved companies.

Aksyonov claims to know who provided the funds and why. He said that Nikolai Skorik, Crimea’s Finance Minister from 2010 to 2013, transferred the money to banks in Odessa that were affiliated with his friends where the interest on the money accrued.

Aksyonov added that a decision in the case would be made after the investigation is complete, but Crimea is not responsible for the debt because the money has not returned to the republic.