GML, a group of shareholders that includes former Yukos majority owners, announced Monday the auctioning off of 18 Russian vodka brands. The total price was 1.6 million Euros ($1.71 Million). GML, a shareholder group that held a majority interest in Yukos via its subsidiaries, said the auctioned brands include Stolichnaya, Moskovskaya and other Russian vodkas.

Former shareholders Veteran Petroleum, GML subsidiaries Hulley Enterprises, and Yukos Universal first took over the Benelux brand four years ago. Russia challenged the confiscation in Dutch courts, but the Dutch Supreme Court dismissed Russia's final appeal in March 2024.

Yukos filed for bankruptcy in 2006, after oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky had a falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The government demanded billions in back taxes and eventually expropriated the company.

In 2014, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague awarded the shareholders a little over $50 billion on grounds that Russia deliberately bankrupted Yukos.

Since then, they have tried to enforce the award, which has grown to almost $60 billion with interest running at $2.5million a day, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Tim Osborne, CEO of GML, said that "all great achievements begin small." ($1 = 0.9332 euro) (Reporting and editing by Sharon Singleton; Charlotte Van Campenhout)