Telenor's appeal against the ruling by the 8th Arbitration Appeals Court in Omsk in West Siberia will be examined by the West-Siberian District Federal Arbitration Court in Tyumen, the statement said.
The 8th Arbitration Appeals Court passed the ruling following a lawsuit filed by a VimpelCom minority shareholder, Farimex (the British Virgin Islands, 0.002% of VimpelCom's stock), which accused the Norwegian telecoms operator of delaying a deal to purchase Ukrainian cell phone operator Ukrainian Radio Systems.
In 2004-2005, Telenor resisted VimpelCom's attempt to enter the Ukrainian market and buy into cell phone operator Ukrainian Radio Systems, as it put VimpelCom in direct competition with the Norwegian company's other interests in Ukraine.
Telenor said in its statement that Farimex had already demanded payment in favor of VimpelCom pursuant to the court's ruling.
"The Omsk Court's decision contains grave substantive and procedural errors, and we have no intention of paying any claimed damages based on this ruling," said Jan Edvard Thygesen, Executive Vice President and Head of Telenor's Central and Eastern European operations.
"This decision is inconsistent with Russian law, and should be reversed. We are confident of our position and believe Russia's higher courts will acknowledge the gross violations of law in the decision and the risk of permitting a dangerous precedent to stand, and, following an unbiased and impartial review, will reverse the decision and dismiss Farimex's claim," he said.
