Putin publicly attacked Mechel in July last year for avoiding taxes and for selling coking coal to affiliated Swiss companies at a quarter of the world price at the time.

His words saw Mechel’s American shares slide from a close of $US40.64 on July 21 to a close of $22.84 on July 24.

The next month, Russian antitrust authorities fined Mechel $32 million for price fixing, with Mechel shares then declining to $4 by year-end.

Reported by Bloomberg, a team of investors led by shareholder Dean Frederick has filed a lawsuit against Mechel for not disclosing information about the company’s behaviour, investigations by Russian authorities, fines or any threat to future revenue.

Mechel did not respond to queries from news services.

Mechel shares on the New York Stock Exchange last closed up 50c to $5.38.

In June last year, the share price was slightly higher than $55.