While hoping for an amicable solution to the raging India-Russia dispute over the fate of $3.1 billion in investments by Sistema, a conglomerate close to the Kremlin, India said all parties to the dispute were “free to take legal recourse.”
“It is a commercial matter and all parties are free to take legal recourse that they deem appropriate to meet their commercial goal,” said official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin when asked to react to the comment of Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin's that “if the issue of cancellation of 2G licence to Sistema is not resolved in Indian courts, we will go for international arbitration.”
Russia has warned that there would be “great repercussions” for foreign investments in India.
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Sistema holds 56.68 per cent stake in Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. whose 21 out of 22 licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court in February.