MOSCOW, June 27 (RAPSI) – AFK Sistema holding company has announced that its shares in several other entities were arrested under the ruling of the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan in a lawsuit filed by Russia’s oil giant Rosneft.

Sistema claims that 31.76% of MTS mobile operator’s shares owned by the holding company and its subsidiary Sistema-Invest as well as 100% of Medsi Group’s shares and 90.47% of Bashkir Power Grid Company’s (BESK) were seized to secure claims in 170.6 billion rubles (about $2.9 billion at the current exchange rate) lawsuit filed by Rosneft, Bashneft and Republic of Bashkiria against AFK Sistema and Sistema-Invest.

On Tuesday, the Commercial Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan is expected to hold hearings in the lawsuit.

On June 6, the court joined the local Ministry of Land and Property Regulations to the lawsuit. AFK Sistema objected to involvement of Bashkiria’s authorities into the case.

Earlier, the court has granted a motion by Rosneft to increase its damage claim in the suit against Sistema from 106.6 billion ($1.9 billion) to 170.6 billion rubles ($3 billion at the current exchange rate). The plaintiff revised the claim damage upwards taking into account currency fluctuations, according to a representative of the company.

Press service of Rosneft said that the lawsuit is connected with alleged siphoning of assets. Actions of AFK Sistema allegedly led to decrease of assets at this sum.

According to AFK Sistema, the plaintiffs’ demands are illegal and groundless.

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, the son of ex-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.