The Russian mobile provider MTS has filed a lawsuit against Turkmenistan to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) after its subsidiary “MTS-Turkmenistan” had been forced to shut down its operations.
According to Interfax, total losses of the communications providers have not been fully calculated. According to preliminary estimates, however, the losses amounted to at least $750 mln.
MTS believes that Turkmenistan violated its rights as a foreign investor set forth in the agreement between the government of Russia and the Republic of Turkmenistan on encouragement and mutual protection of investments as of 25 March 2009, which resulted in full expropriation of MTS investments in Turkmenistan, — the information agency quotes the press-release issued by the communications provider.
The attempts to settle a dispute by holding negotiations did not bring about any results. Over six months ago MTS notified Turkmenistan on its intention to take the case to the court if the sides fail to reach an agreement.
Let us recall that the cellular provider “MTS-Turkmenistan” curtailed its operations in late September 2017. Turkmenistan refused to extend the frequency use license. At the time of the closure, the provider had 1,7 million subscribers.
In November 2017 it was reported that in the third quarter of 2017 “MTS-Turkmenistan” incurred losses of 1,1 billion Rubles (about $18,5 million) due to curtailed operations.
In June 2018 “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” reported that “MTS-Turkmenistan” had been selling out its property used air conditioners and transformer stations.
On 26 July the announcement on the sale of used air conditioners was published on the company website.