MOSCOW, May 10 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has returned to Rosneft and Bashneft a claim to collect 106.6 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) from AFK Sistema holding company, according to court records.

Rosneft and Bashneft have filed the lawsuit in early May. The cause for legal action has not been disclosed in court papers.

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.

A similar lawsuit has been filed with a court in Ufa.

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.