MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) - Moscow's Presnensky District Court ruled on Tuesday that Natalia Potanina, the ex-wife of billionaire Vladimir Potanin, must pay 78 million rubles ($1.3 million) in damages to Eco Invest company over a failure to sell a house in Moscow Region, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The hearings on the suit were suspended in September 2014 after Potanina filed a claim with Moscow's Tverskoy District Court seeking to nullify the sales agreement. However, the court ruled in favour of Eco Invest, a company controlled by Vladimir Potanin.

He was granted a divorce from his wife in February 2014.

In late April 2015, Natalia Potanina filed a lawsuit for ownership of 50 percent of her ex-husband’s stake in Norilsk Nickel and half of Interros International, which holds their other assets.

Under the Russian Family Code, the property acquired during a marriage is considered community property and therefore should be divided into equal parts in a divorce.

On July 10 this year, Moscow's Presnensky District Court issued a ruling on dividing the assets of Potanin and his ex-wife.

According to a source familiar with the lawsuit, the court ruled that Vladimir Potanin keep a 407 sq m luxury apartment on Skatertny Pereulok (central Moscow) and a church, St. Blessed Tamara in the village of Anosino, in the Moscow Region.

Natalya Potanina will receive 380 million rubles ($6.7mln) in compensation for her share of the apartment as well as three plots of land in the Moscow Region.

Also, on July 30, the court will hear Natalia Potanina’s lawsuit on dividing the Norilsk Nickel and Interros shares between the former spouses.