FACTBOX-Telenor's legal battles in Russia and Ukraine

June 10 (Reuters) - Norway's Telenor (TEL.OL) held out on Wednesday the prospect of a deal with Russia's Alfa Group, its partner in Russian and Ukrainian mobile ventures, if a contested Siberian court case is dropped. [ID:nLA50205]

Risking the ire of foreign investors, Russian bailiffs said they would soon auction off Telenor's stake in Russian operator Vimpelcom (VIP.N) to pay a $1.7 billion fine awarded by the Siberian court. [ID:nLA98480]

Below are details of Telenor's legal battles:

VIMPELCOM CASE

Vimpelcom's ownership structure: Telenor (29.9 percent voting stock/33.6 percent common); Alfa Group (44.0 percent/37.0 percent); Farimex (0.002 percent, when it filed a suit against Telenor)

* British Virgin Islands-registered Farimex sued Telenor in a Siberian court, claiming the Norwegian company's opposition to Vimpelcom's purchase of Ukrainian mobile operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS) delayed the deal at a loss to Vimpelcom.

* Telenor disputes Farimex's ability to claim the damages given its small shareholding in Vimpelcom. It believes Farimex is linked to Alfa Group, with which Telenor has had a long history of litigation. Alfa denies any links to Farimex.

* Norway owns a majority in Telenor, while Alfa Group is run by billionaire Mikhail Fridman, with close links to the Kremlin.

* Norway's government has called the Telenor case its "top bilateral issue" with Russia and Norway's prime minister and foreign minister have visited Moscow only to hear from Russian officials that the case was a private matter between firms.

* Telenor says it opposed the 2005 purchase of URS because the Ukrainian company was overvalued, lacked prospects and the deal was not transparent. URS was ultimately bought by Vimpelcom continued to be loss-making for the Russian group through 2008.

* Vimpelcom's entry into Ukraine put it in direct competition with Kyivstar, majority-owned by Telenor.

* A court in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, held Telenor liable for $2.8 billion but an appeals court overturned its ruling. After a retrial another Siberian court ruled in Farimex's favour and ordered Telenor to pay Vimpelcom $1.7 billion.

* Telenor refused and the court seized its Vimpelcom shares, and bailiffs are now preparing to auction off the stake.

* Vimpelcom has not expressed any interest in claiming the fine but Telenor fears the court could force through the claim.

* Telenor has filed injunctions in Russian courts to prevent the sale of the stake while it appeals against the court award but Russian bailiffs have rejected Telenor's requests to let the appeal process run its course before selling the shares.

* A Siberian court delayed a hearing of one such appeal until Sept. 30 at the request of Farimex, which needed more time to evaluate a U.S. district court case, according to Telenor.

* Last year Telenor filed a suit in a U.S. district court to clarify potential links between Farimex and Alfa. If such links are proven, Telenor says, then the Russian cases must be dropped and Farimex's suit be treated by a regular arbitration process like all other shareholder disputes.

KYIVSTAR CASE

Kyivstar is Ukraine's largest mobile operator. Its shareholders are: Telenor (56.52 percent); Alfa's subsidiary Storm (43.48 percent)

* Telenor was forced to deconsolidate Kyivstar in 2007 due to "insufficient control" over the company. Storm has not attended shareholder meetings for most of the past four years.

* Storm boycotted the Kyivstar meetings because of a Ukrainian court injunction against attending, which was triggered by a case brought by EC Venture, a Swiss company that sold its interest in Storm in 2004 and later sued Storm.

* In March 2009, a U.S. federal court in New York said four Alfa Group companies were in contempt of court for failing to obey U.S. arbitration court orders and said the EC Venture-Storm case was friendly collusive litigation.

* The court ordered Alfa to pay fines and secure the dismissal of EC Venture's litigation and divest stakes in Kyivstar rivals. In April, the U.S. court lifted the fines, saying it had complied with its ruling.

* In May, Telenor said a Farimex complaint had triggered an anti-monopoly investigation for Kyivstar in Ukraine.

(Compiled by Wojciech Moskwa; editing by Simon Jessop)