ALMATY, Jan 19 (AFP) - Russia's troubled VimpelCom mobile phone operator is hopeful that a Turkish court demand for 5.5 billion dollars (4.2 billion euros) allegedly owed by a Kazakh subsidiary was issued in error, a VimpelCom executive said on Wednesday.
Media reports from Turkey questioning the accuracy of the demand issued to the KaR-Tel subsidiary suggest a positive outcome for the Russian company, VimpelCom's vice president Valery Goldin said.
The reports suggested that the 5.5 billion dollars might actually relate to a clutch of companies related to Turkey's controversial Uzan family, which was a major stakeholder in KaR-Tel through the the Rumeli and Telsim companies until 2003.
If so, the order, issued by a Turkish court and delivered by a Kazakh court, "was not correctly formulated probably ... but we need to have it from officials," Goldin said.
"In our view the claim is totally unjustified ... we're investigating the situation," Goldin said by telephone from Moscow.
VimpelCom's troubles in this Central Asian former Soviet republic follows a bruising battle with Russia's tax authorities, in which the firm was at first told to pay 157 million dollars in back taxes before that sum was negotiated down to 17 million dollars last month.
KaR-Tel has delivered a petition to the Turkish court protesting the demand, which states that the debt is to be paid to Turkey's Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, VimpelCom has said.
Observers in Kazakhstan have voiced doubt about the likelihood of such a large debt being accrued by KaR-Tel, whose K-Mobile brand is Kazakhstan's second largest provider but is thought to have only between 300,000 to 400,000 subscribers.
VimpleCom paid Kazakh investors 350,000 dollars for KaR-Tel last September and assumed around 75 million dollars in debt, a deal that observers said substantially over-valued KaR-Tel.
Rumeli has a history of disputes with Nokia and Motorola over debts claimed by the Scandinavian equipment suppliers.
VimpelCom is a joint stock company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with 29.9 percent owned by Norway's Telenor and 24.5 percent under the control of Russia's Alfa Group.
Since this oil-rich republic Kazakhstan broke from Moscow in 1991 its telecoms sector has been dogged by controversy, sometimes involving relatives of authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

01/19/2005 16:10 GMT - AFP