British court freezes Gazprom's Nord Stream dividends - Naftogaz

KIEV (Reuters) - A British High Court ruling has frozen potential dividends which Russian gas giant Gazprom <GAZP.MM> could receive from Nord Stream, Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz said on Friday.

Naftogaz said in a statement that $145 million (£116 million) of the dividends must be moved to the court's deposit "as a guarantee of meeting the requirements of the court".

Ukraine and Russia have been in dispute over gas issues for years, which escalated after a pro-Russian leader of Ukraine was toppled in 2014.

In 2018, a Stockholm court ordered Gazprom to pay more than $2.5 billion to Naftogaz over a different contractual dispute, but Gazprom appealed the ruling.

Earlier this year, the British High Court suspended its case in the dispute between Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz until the appeal process at the Swedish court was complete.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)