Kremlin-owned land in Paris seized at former Yukos shareholders' request

The approximate cost of the center's facility whose construction is still under way is EUR 90 million, RBC said.

However, the court's decision is not going to affect the construction of the Orthodox Centre, since the Paris court ruled the facility has diplomatic immunity and refused to block the construction. Russian lawyers appealed the seizure of the land plot and the facilities on it, but the court has yet to make a final decision.

According to the report, Cyprus-based Hulley Enterprises, an entity owning a majority stake in Yukos, lodged a claim over Russia's real property assets in the center of Paris in June 2015, along with other Russian assets in France, including buildings, bank accounts, companies' shares and payments of French companies. The seizure of the land involves only a ban on its sale, while Hulley also sought an immediate halt to the construction work.

On July 24 a judge of the Paris court of first instance ruled that the land allocated for the construction of the Orthodox center enjoyed diplomatic immunity, said French lawyer of Russia Andrea Pinna. Former Yukos shareholders addressed the judicial panel headed by the First Vice-Chairman of the Paris court, demanding the suspension of the construction. On January 22, 2016, the court turned down the claim saying that only an enforcement judge (juge de l’execution) was authorized to take such decisions. RBC wrote it had a copy of the court ruling at its disposal.

The land plot which covers over 4,700 square meters was reportedly acquired by the Russian President's Administrative Directorate for EUR 70 million in 2010. The center's construction site is located on a bank of the river Seine, close to the Eiffel Tower. The facility will consist of an Orthodox cross-dome church, the first one since the collapse of the Russian Empire, as well as of a seminary, a library, a culture center, and a Russian-French school. The center's facility was designed by French architect, city planner and designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte. French-based Bouygues Batiment is the contractor under the construction project.

The project is financed from the Russian federal budget, with an estimate of 258 million rubles allocated in 2015 to reimburse Bouygues Batiment's costs. The contract with Bouygues is estimated at EUR 90.7 million, including EUR 27.2 million in 2014, EUR 47.1 million in 2015 and EUR 16.3 million in 2016 as stated in procurement documents of the Russian president's administrative directorate as of April 29, 2015. Taking into account the purchase price of the land, the value of the project could be estimated at EUR 160 million.

The construction began in April 2015. The center is to be commissioned in the middle of 2016.

During court hearings in December, Hulley was seeking to prove that the construction itself was not an act of sovereign functions by the Russian state and therefore was not subject to immunity. In addition, it claimed that such interim measure as a halt to the construction was justified in order to "prevent imminent harm or stop a clearly unlawful infringement" (Article 809 of France's Code of Civil Procedure), as the construction of the church reduces the commercial value of the plot.

The court ruled that Hulley Enterprises should pay EUR 7,500 to Russia and its co-defendant, Bouygues Batiment, each as compensation for legal costs. A representative of GML, the holding company for Yukos' former shareholders, declined to comment on the decision.