Russian conglomerate Alfa Group has criticised a US federal court ruling late last week that could force it to relinquish its stake in Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest operator. The ruling is the latest development in the long-running dispute between Alfa and Norway’s Telenor over ownership of their two joint mobile ventures, Kyivstar and Russia’s VimpelCom. Ruling in favour of Telenor, the court has ordered Alfa to either sell its shares in Kyivstar within 90 days, or divest its separate interests in Kyivstar’s rival Ukrainian operators, the Turkcell-controlled Astelit, and Ukrainian High Technologies. It has imposed fines starting at US$100,000 a day from November 29 and doubling every 30 days until Alfa complies with the verdict.

“We consider this charge as unfair,” Kirill Babaev – senior vice president at Altimo, Alfa’s telecoms arm – told Reuters. In a separate suit, Telenor has appealed against a Siberian court ruling which awarded US$2.8 billion in damages to VimpelCom. According to Reuters, analysts suggest that the most likely out-of-court solution to both cases was an asset swap that will give Telenor total ownership of Kyivstar and Alfa most of VimpelCom. Currently, Alfa holds 44 percent of the voting shares in VimpelCom and Telenor holds 29.9 percent, while Telenor holds 56.5 percent of Kyivstar and Alfa and its partners hold the remainder.