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 "Over the past few years, Russia has pursued a multi-pronged
attack against me, my family, and my investments," Pugachev said in
a written statement on Tuesday. "I refuse to be intimidated by
Russia's tactics."
Reuters reported on Monday that lawyers for Pugachev had issued
notice of a claim of more than $10 billion against Russia that is
likely to be heard in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The
Hague.
Pugachev's lawyers said that such claims can take years but noted
that Moscow is already fighting a separate ruling by the same court
in 2014, when it was ordered to pay $50 billion for expropriating
the assets of Yukos, once Russia's biggest oil producer run by
Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
When asked about the Pugachev claim, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry
Peskov, said he had "no comment" but said that official
investigations were ongoing.
 Russia is seeking Pugachev's arrest for embezzlement and
misappropriation of assets, charges he denies. Peskov said the
investigation into Pugachev had nothing to do with his relationship
with Putin.
"Investigative or search actions, of course, aren’t related to the
extent to which there were friendly or unfriendly relations" with
Putin, Peskov said.
KREMLIN BANKER
Since leaving Russia in 2011, Pugachev, 52, has accused Putin's
allies of bringing his multi-billion dollar business empire to its
knees before picking off some of its best assets.
Pugachev founded Mezhprombank, or International Industrial Bank, in
1992, just a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It grew to
become one of Russia’s biggest banks.
Pugachev's business empire had stakes in the ‘Northern’ and ‘Baltic’
shipyards, the latter of which built the Tsar’s battleships and
Soviet nuclear-powered icebreakers, and a giant Siberian coal
deposit.
Edward Kehoe, a lawyer at King & Spalding who is representing
Pugachev, said the claim against Russia alleged violations of a
Russian-French bilateral investment treaty and international law.
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"These cases do take a while," Kehoe said. "We can expect, if
history is a guide, for a case of this type that it could be at
least two to three years before we would expect an award."
Pugachev, who became a French citizen in 2009, said the Kremlin
stripped him of his assets without paying compensation. Pugachev
defied a British judge's order to stay in Britain and fled to France
this year. His lawyers said he feared for his life after devices
were found under his car.
"The reason Mr Pugachev left was that he was in real fear for his
life," said Nick Cherryman, one of Pugachev's lawyers. "It is not
very pleasant to find black boxes underneath your car."
After helping Putin ascend to Russia's top job in 1999 during the
last days of Boris Yeltsin's presidency, Pugachev fell out with some
of Putin's most powerful allies in the years after the 2008
financial crisis.
Russian authorities say Pugachev, who once represented Siberia's
Tuva Republic in the upper house of parliament, helped himself to
over $700 million in Russian central bank bailout money intended to
help Mezhprombank through the crisis.
Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Pugachev at Russia's
request.
Pugachev's notice of arbitration was delivered to Putin and Russia's
ministers of economy, finance, justice and foreign affairs, his
lawyers said.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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