⁍ Dutch court lifts seizure of vodka brands Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya.

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⁍ Ruling overturned seizure by shareholders of defunct Russian oil giant Yukos.

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⁍ Yukos shareholders are seeking to reclaim more than $50 billion in lost assets from Moscow.

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– The former owners of the now-defunct Russian oil giant Yukos have scored a victory in their long-running battle to reclaim $50 billion in lost assets from Moscow. A Dutch court today lifted the seizure of the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka trademarks by Russian state company FKP Sojuzplodoimport, which had claimed them as assets of the Russian state, Reuters reports. A Dutch appeals court in February overturned a $50 billion award to Yukos shareholders, a surprise ruling 13 years after the assets came under Kremlin control. That case is pending at the Dutch Supreme Court. Tuesday’s decision, a preliminary ruling in the ongoing international legal battle, found the seizure of assets in May had been unlawful. The assets, held by Russian state company FKP Sojuzplodoimport, cannot be considered as an object of recovery of the Russian Federation, the court found. “It was time this frivolous action, for which there is no basis in the law, came to a halt,” said a lawyer for FKP Sojuzplodoimport, adding that Yukos shareholders would now have to scrap their planned auction of the trademarks. “The former Yukos shareholders will challenge today’s judgment of the Hague District Court.”