MOSCOW, June 26 - RAPSI. Yury Khardikov, a former Moscow's official, demands $29,800 in legal fees from Yelena Baturina, the billionaire wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, Khardikov’s representative says on Tuesday.
Earlier, Khardikov’s mother filed a similar claim.
In April, the court dropped its proceedings in Baturina’s lawsuit against Khardikov, his mother and Olymp-2014 to quash her purchase of a 90-percent stake in Olymp-2014, as the lawsuit was withdrawn by the plaintiff.
In September, the Moscow Commercial Court ruled that the case should be transferred to the Krasnodar Territorial Commercial Court's jurisdiction, thereby granting the plaintiff's appeal, as Olymp-2014 was registered in Sochi.
Khardikov was dismissed from office in late 2008. He was later prosecuted upon Baturina's request. Investigators discovered that he had sold a land plot in Sochi to Baturina in 2007, even though he knew the land had been seized by a court order. Baturina allegedly sustained one billion rubles ($34 million) in damages as a result of the deal. Meanwhile, Khardikov said the land was reclaimed after Baturina had purchased it.
A court issued an arrest warrant for Khardikov in absentia and placed him on the international wanted list. In March 2011, Lithuania granted him political asylum.