A hire purchase agreement is how senior counsel Marcus Dowling explained it to the High Court. But unlike paying instalments on a standard family hatchback, his clients, four Cypriot companies, have been left in “limbo” with options to buy more than €130 million worth of chartered shipping vessels from a sanctioned Russian leasing company registered in Ireland. The Irish-based company GTLK Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s state leasing company GTLK, which previously supplied Airbus carriers to low-cost airline Easyjet. The court was told most of GTLK Europe’s business is in Russia. The Cypriot companies say they are…

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