Russian Effort to Escape $50 Billion in Arbitral Awards Fails

The Russian Federation failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss a ten-year-old arbitration enforcement suit from shareholders of one of the largest privatized oil companies after the Soviet Union’s dissolution.

“The Russian Federation asserts arguments that cannot be squared with binding precedent and that risk upending the global community’s predominant mechanism for international commercial dispute resolution and decreasing international accountability of states and private parties conducting business abroad,” the US District Court for the District of Columbia said on Nov. 17.

Shareholders of Yukos, the oil company, sued Russia in 2014 to enforce final arbitral awards issued by the ...