The Amsterdam court sided with the ex-YUKOS shareholders: will Russia pay $50 billion?

New appeals are ahead

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal rejected the Russian appeal against the previous decision in the Yukos case, taken by the arbitration tribunal in The Hague. According to this verdict, the Russian Federation must pay over $50 billion to the former shareholders of the oil company. Experts warn: it is too early to put an end to this legal epic, the appeal processes could drag on for years, and Russia is unlikely to pay even a penny, even after losing all the courts in the unfriendly West .

The Amsterdam court found Russia’s argument about alleged fraud by ex-shareholders during the previous arbitration proceedings in The Hague unfounded. As a result, the previous verdict was not overturned. And that means. That the Russian side must pay the ex-shareholders of YUKOS $50 billion (plus accrued penalties) for the alleged “expropriation” of the company.

However, this is far from the end of the story. The court’s verdict states that the decision can be appealed by representatives of the Russian side in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands and there is little doubt that such a move by lawyers representing the Russian side will follow. In turn, lawyers for ex-YUKOS shareholders believe that a new trial could take at least a year and a half.

Meanwhile, the ongoing legal showdown between the ex-shareholders of the oil company and the Russian government may well be celebrating a full anniversary, and more than one. Back in 2014, a court in The Hague, after ten years of deliberation, awarded compensation in the amount of $50 billion to three offshore companies from Cyprus and the Isle of Man that once controlled Yukos for “expropriation.” Moscow categorically refused to pay, citing the fact that it had not ratified the multilateral agreement to the Energy Charter, that is, the document that became the basis for the plaintiffs to initiate legal proceedings.

This was followed by a whole series of legal battles between plaintiffs and defendants in various departments. The case progressed with varying success on both sides and was constantly transferred from the jurisdiction of one state to another. The case was heard in the High Court of London, the District Court for the District of Columbia (USA) and two dozen other legal authorities and eventually reached the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam. The decisions of these authorities, by the way, were not unambiguous. For example, in November 2021, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands overturned the decision on Russia to pay those same $50 billion and decided to reconsider it. By the way, according to Reuters, since that time the amount of compensation could have already reached $60 billion, taking into account penalties and interest.

However, the exact amount at stake hardly matters. After all, this legal dispute, according to Nikita Maslennikov, a leading expert at the Center for Political Technologies, has long turned into a kind of show. “Russia does not recognize the claims made, and openly claims that it will never pay compensation,” the expert said. Nevertheless, according to him, the former shareholders of YUKOS continue to “shake the air” in those courts and those countries of the world that will certainly confirm that they are right, but are unlikely to really help with receiving money. According to Maslennikov, all these court cases can be considered as part of a big political game: the West understands that sanctions attacks on our country do not lead to the economic collapse of Russia, therefore, using the example of the “YUKOS case,” they will try to at least ruin the business reputation of our country as much as possible.