In this exclusive interview, German businessman Franz J. Sedelmayer discusses his decades-long dispute with the Russian government, challenging Russia’s sovereign immunity, and the link between state corruption and the current environment of civil unrest in Russia.

Q: Looking at the very long history of your dispute with the Kremlin, no one could say that you lack resilience in seeking recovery of your stolen property. So where did this all begin?

A: As the Eastern Block began to break down in 1989, we saw an opportunity to set up a company supplying law enforcement equipment to Russian executive organs of state helping with their modernization and training their personnel. Later on I also founded a security service to assist new foreign investors in navigating in a rather risky economy. We set up our joint venture, JSC Kamenny Ostrov, together with the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Police Department, which offered the use of facilities on Stone Island for a 25-year lease. We ended up bringing in cash, equipment and renovating our company facilities, investing upwards of $4,000,000.

We began having political problems right away as the law changed, banning the police from participation in commercial activities, and creating a heated competition for the other 50% of our company between organs of the new federal government and the old property fund ran by the Supreme Soviet.