MOSCOW, October 7 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. The court upheld on Thursday the lower court's refusal to declare historical Hotel Sovietsky in Moscow federal government property.

The Moscow Region Federal Commercial Court dismissed a cassation appeal filed by the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) to overrule the Moscow Commercial Court's decision and to remand the case for reconsideration.

Rosimushchestvo claims the hotel is a federal property, while Moscow authorities had unlawfully assumed property rights to the hotel before selling it in 2007 to Sovietskaya Limited, owned by Chechen businessman Ruslan Baisarov.

Founded in 1952, Hotel Sovietsky used to serve as a ministerial residence.