Russian Sanctions and Anti-Suits: A New Legal Torpedo?

Chiraag Shah and Robin Bachmann authored an article for Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law Arbitration Blog concerning a recent Supreme Court of Russia ruling on the interpretation of legislative amendments made to the Russian Arbitrazh (Commercial) Procedure Code. The decision is now all the more relevant, given the wide-ranging sanctions regimes that have been imposed on Russian entities and individuals resulting from the crisis in Ukraine.

“It is already apparent, from the fallout following the crisis and the sanctions regimes, that many contracts with Russian entities, including in the energy, mining, extraction and financial sectors, have been impacted and it is certainly likely that potentially significant disputes will arise from these contracts in the future. Many of these contracts will contain non-Russian seated arbitration clauses. Given the broad powers conferred on the Russian courts by the amendments as affirmed by the decision, a key question for arbitral tribunals will be how to navigate this issue, including any anti-suit injunctions that may be obtained from the Russian courts.”

Read the full article.