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Petersburg is breaking a contact with the contractors of the Zenit-Arena by legal procedure. RIA Novosti, 6th September 2016

Oh Tuesday the Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg brought several suits to the arbitration tribunals of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad region in order to recognize as broken contracts with the engineering corporations Transstroy and Transstroy SPb, the former contractors building a football stadium in the western part of the isle of Krestovsky.

"The Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg brought suits to the arbitration tribunal of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad region claiming to recognize as broken the state contracts with the CLL "Engineering Corporation Transstroy-SPb, the JSC Engineering Corporation Transstroy and the JSL Corporation Transstroy," - reported to RIA the Senior Partner of Pen & Paper Konstantin Dobrynin who represents the interests of the administration of Saint-Petersburg. Earlier these companies demanded in court to recognize as invalid a unilateral rejection of the corresponding contract by the Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg.

According to Dobrynin, lawsuits of the Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg may be regarded as "a legal fixing of the position of the former general contractor - the Transstroy company- on the contracts' status a their unilateral breaking".

"The company is a bit confused in its testimony- in one case, it claims that there wasn't any unilateral rejection (from the contract), in the other, that the rejection took place, but later it was recalled, and in the third one, including its lawsuits against the Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg, Transstroy already demands to recognize them as invalid. So, clarity and certainty would be desirable. These suits will, in the first place, help Transstroy to make everything clear, for after certainty is undoubtedly established by court, the former general constructor will be able to realize the foundation for the unilateral breaking of the contract by the city, the reasons for what has happened and will be informed about the consequences," - noted the attorney.

In his turn, Sergey Morozov, the Chairman of the Committee on Construction of Saint-Petersburg, said to the RIA Novosti that Petersburg was determined to protect "its legitimate interests".

"We expect the court to make a well-grounded and legitimate decision. Petersburg needs not battles in the court, but a stadium which the former general constructor failed to build," - said he.

Construction of a new stadium for the football club Zenit on the Isle of Krestovsky began in 2007, but the project was sent for improvement because of the request to host the World Football Championship in 2018, for the arena should fully meet the requirements of the FIFA in terms of capacity and safety.

Vitaly Mutko, Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation, Head of the RFU, Chairman of the Organizing Committee "Russia-2018", said in August that the stadium was 85% ready. Earlier, in July apparatus of the Vice-Governor of Saint-Petersburg Igor' Albin reported about breaking of the corresponding contracts with the LLC "Engineering Corporation Transstroy to build a stadium. The Committee on Construction chose Metrostroy to become a new constructor to fulfill building of the stadium and to do works on the complex improvement of the area around the arena. The total cost of the contracts will make 7.8 billion roubles (5.4 bln and 2.4 bln roubles correspondingly).