Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, announced that the International Dispute Review Board (DRB) has refused financial claims against Russian state-owned nuclear major Rosatom. Earlier this year Finland had terminated a contract with the Russian company for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear facility in the country.

Likhachyov derided Finland’s decision to exit the project as political, noting  that Hanhikivi-1 was the only international venture “on which, so to speak, our foreign activities ‘lost weight’.”

The Finnish Fennovoima consortium, in which Rosatom has a 34% stake, had terminated the contract in May, ending the plan to build a nuclear power plant in northwest Finland. Although the consortium initially cited delays in the project, it later cited risks due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine,

Claiming billions of dollars in losses, each side began legal proceedings  against the other in August. Fennovoima claimed it had lost almost €‎2 billion ($2 billion), while Rosatom sought $3 billion from the Finnish consortium

In December, the DRB, an arbitration panel that settles international contract disputes, determined the termination of the contract by the Finnish consortium was illegal.

Speaking to Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, Likhachyov said, “This is the first and most important decision we have been waiting for… we cannot influence the attitude of the Finnish bosses. But let them sell it for their own money, and ours will be returned.”

The Rosatom chief noted  of the ruling, “…an international arbitration consisting of representatives of only Western European countries has issued an unambiguous verdict. The Finnish side was denied financial claims.”

The Finnish consortium said in a statement on its website that the DRB’s ruling was neither final or binding, and it had filed a notice of “dissatisfaction” in response to the ruling.

The contract for the Hanhikivi-1 project was signed between Fennovoima and Rosatom’s nuclear plant subsidiary for exports, Rusatom Overseas in December of 2013. The contract specified a one unit, 1,200 MW, nuclear power plant utilizing the state of the art Russian reactor VVER-1200.

The Hanhikivi project would have been 66% owned by Fennovoima and shareholders, made up of several of the country’s major corporations and several local energy companies. The project had been completing licensing and preparatory construction when the project was terminated.