MOSCOW, June 13 (RAPSI) - A Moscow commercial court has accepted the Skolkovo Foundation's appeal against the court ruling to collect over 80 million rubles ($2.5 million) in debt upon the request of the Cognitive Technologies company, which designed the Smart City Skolkovo concept, a court representative told RAPSI.

The date of the hearing at the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has not yet been set.

The first instance court found that Cognitive Technologies won a tender and in February 2012 signed a contract to design a concept comprising documents and a Smart City hardware and software model, including all of the possible scenarios.

The contract was assessed at 89.739 million rubles ($2.8 million). Cognitive Technologies hired Cisco Systems International B.V., Ernst & Young and Panasonic Rus as subcontractors for the project.

The ultimate goal was to create the largest sustainable urban destination in Europe.

The client, Skolkovo Foundation, transferred around 9 million rubles, but subsequently refused to pay the rest, claiming that the contractor failed to meet its requirements and, in particular, was too slow to rectify the client's complaints.

However, the court decided that the contract did not give Skolkovo the right to refuse to honor its obligations based on project documentation shortcomings, and that it can only demand that the contractor rectify these shortcomings.

Skolkovo filed an appeal against that decision on June 6.

The Skolkovo Foundation, set up in 2010 by then President Dmitry Medvedev, is the primary agency for the Skolkovo high-tech development hub, which includes a business center, a science and technology institute and a management school. The project is intended to showcase the drive to diversify and modernize the Russian economy.

Renova Group President Viktor Vekselberg is one of the foundation's prime investors.