MOSCOW, May 3 (RAPSI) – Rosneft and Bashneft have filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Commercial Court seeking to collect 106.6 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) from AFK Sistema holding company, according to court records.

The cause for legal action has not been disclosed.

However, RIA Novosti agency reported citing spokesman for Rosneft Mikhail Leontyev, that the lawsuit is connected with alleged siphoning of assets. According to the oil company’s representative, actions of AFK Sistema led to decrease of assets at this sum.

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov.

The company was privatized in 2009, when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema gained control of it.

A court in Moscow ruled that Bashneft had been privatized in violation of law. The Prosecutor General's Office brought a suit to return a 71.6 percent stake in Bashneft to the government. The Moscow Commercial Court ruled on October 30, 2014, in favor of the Prosecutor General's Office.