Russian court freezes assets of two German banks in gas project dispute

By ELISE MORTON and STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN
Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — The Russian state news agency Tass says a court in St. Petersburg has ordered the seizing of assets of Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Russia. The order is in response to a lawsuit over the planned construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal in the Baltic Sea. The banks were among the guarantors in the contract for the building of a gas processing plant by a multinational firm and the German company Linde. But the project was canceled after Western sanctions, with the banks withdrawing their guarantees. In a statement Deutsche Bank said  it has made a provision for approximately 260 million euros ($283 million) under an indemnification agreement.