Estonian businessman wins against Russian defense ministry in Crimean court
Businessman and former mayor of Tallinn, Tõnis Palts, is defending his rights to real estate owned by him in Crimea, won against the Russian defense ministry in a local first-tier court earlier this month.
As daily Postimees reported on Thursday, the Sevastopol arbitration court decided in favor of Palts’ company Kaskad Investments on Mar. 7, publishing its decision in detail a week later.
Palts is fighting claims of the Russian defense ministry to real estate his company bought from the Ukrainian defense ministry in 2006. The plot in question is in Balaklava close to Sevastopol, a navy port that has been of great importance to the Russian and Soviet navies for a long time. The former army base with some 30 buildings is surrounded by land that Palts bought from the city of Sevastopol later on.
The base, which is known locally by its military index number B-42, used to be a missile complex in Soviet days. After the collapse of the USSR, the base was abandoned. Palts bought it for 10 million Ukrainian grivna in 2006, some €1.65 million.
As the businessman told Postimees, the court’s decision came as a surprise, as this was the first time ever that someone had won against the Russian military.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
