Alfa Group
In May 2005, the Alfa Group filed a lawsuit against Telenor, via Alfa's daughter company "Eco Telecom Ltd", contesting the declination of Telenor's three VimpelCom board members to approve the URS acquisition. Eco Telecom especially contested Telenor's vetoing power in the VimpelCom shareholder agreement. After the trial, Alfa Group declined during four years to take part in the board of managers meetings in Ukrainian Kyivstar, thereby blocking the normal procedures of annual assemblies, approval of accounts, and payments of dividends. In 2008 Telenor achieved several legal approvals in the U.S. Federal Court of Appeal in New York, and in 2009 the Alfa Group submitted to the rulings and took up normal shareholder activity in Kyivstar. In Russian VimpelCom, however, the Alfa Group geared up its legal battle with Telenor by nominating more directors than Alfa's capital share implied. In January 2007, a court of appeal in Geneva, Switzerland ruled that Alfa Group had violated the shareholder agreement of VimpelCom.