Hague ruling April 2016 / Russia wins legal victory over Yukos damages

“The West has decided to ease up the pressure. My friends will continue their efforts. I will look for other ways to effect regime change.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, talking about the overturning by a Dutch court in the Hague of a record $50bn damages award to former controlling shareholders of the Yukos oil company.

The court in The Hague overturned a 2014 decision of an international arbitration panel which ruled that Russia owed the shareholders more than $50 billion for what it described as the Kremlin’s “devious and calculated expropriation” of assets designed to bankrupt the firm.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration lacked jurisdiction to rule on the matter because the case was brought under the Energy Charter Treaty which has never been ratified by Russia, the Dutch court said. “With the arbitration awards quashed, the Russian Federation is no longer liable for paying compensation to these parties,” it said.