MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A Moscow court on Friday opened its hearings into the Russian central bank's case against Belgium's Euroclear for 18.2 trillion roubles ($234.84 billion) over Russian
Russian Central Bank's $235 Billion Lawsuit Against Euroclear Delayed
Overview of the Lawsuit Against Euroclear
(Refiles to write 'billion' in headline instead of abbreviation 'bln')
Details of the Case
By Elena Fabrichnaya
Implications for Investors
MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A hearing of the Russian central bank's $235 billion lawsuit against Belgium's Euroclear, held behind closed doors at a Moscow court on Friday, has been adjourned and will resume in spring, a source who was present at the hearing told Reuters.
Reactions from Euroclear
The central bank filed the 18.2 trillion rouble lawsuit in Moscow last month in response to a European Union plan to use Russian sovereign assets frozen in Europe - mostly held in Euroclear - to back a loan to Ukraine.
The case is proceeding despite the fact that the EU later set aside the plan because of concerns, especially from Belgium, about the legal basis for it.
The EU decided instead to borrow money in order to lend 90 billion euros to Ukraine to fund its military and civilian needs as the war with Russia nears the end of its fourth year.
At the start of Friday's hearing, lawyers for Euroclear argued unsuccessfully that the case should be dropped.
Lawyers for the central bank said it should be heard behind closed doors, citing state secrecy and the "unprecedented" amount of money involved.
Euroclear sought more time to study that request, but judge Anna Petrukhina agreed to it. She announced that the case would go ahead, and ordered journalists to leave the courtroom.
The head of Euroclear, Valerie Urbain, told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper last month that it holds about 17 billion euros in Russia on behalf of clients.
If Russia's central bank wins the case, it could also seek the seizure of Euroclear assets in other jurisdictions, especially in countries that Russia deems "friendly". One lawyer told Reuters last month that these could include China, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan.
Some Russian private investors are arguing that they should get a share of any Euroclear assets that may be seized, to compensate them for the blocking of their own investments in the West due to sanctions imposed when the war began in 2022.
They were also told to leave the closed hearing.
"It turns out that we are becoming hostages to the situation. We are categorically unsatisfied with this," a representative of the investors, Vladimir Sauridi, told reporters.
He said he was speaking for "real, suffering" private individuals who did not hold vast investments and needed to recover their money.
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gleb Bryanski)
