Future dividend payments will depend on the company's ability to unblock part the 22% of its shares frozen in the sanctions-hit Russian National Settlement Depository (NSD), Polymetal said. Owners of the shares held via NSD, Russia's domestic paying agent, are unable to receive dividends now. For these investors, Polymetal proposed exchanging the shares from electronic to certificated form, the miner said, adding this option would not solve the problem for holders of 11% of the shares due to sanctions restrictions on Moscow and retaliatory Moscow restrictions. Polymetal also said the idea of a business restructuring, which could focus it on its assets in Kazakhstan and spin off the Russian ones, had been hit by Moscow's August decree to freeze sale of certain Russian assets, including gold mining firms, if they are controlled by residents of "unfriendly" countries - unless a special presidential approval is granted.