Article by Olga Pleshanova in Advokatskaya Gazeta
Sanctions as an element of business risk. The risk of adverse events is borne by the injured party.
Olga Pleshanova, Head of the Analytical Department at Infralex, supplemented the article on international contracts during sanctions with judicial practice. The expert identified the following problems that cause the greatest difficulty in practice:
- the restrictive approach of courts to qualifying sanctions as force majeure;
- the difficulty of proving the entire set of circumstances provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 451 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (forced change, termination of the contract due to a significant change in circumstances), taking into account the provisions of paragraph 4 of Article 451 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which imposes the risk of changing circumstances on the party to the contract;
- a conflict of jurisdictions (parallel legal proceedings, the practice of anti-claim injunctions in order to protect the arbitration of one's jurisdiction);
- difficulties in enforcing court decisions.
The issue of recognition of court decisions of Russian courts The head of the analytical service particularly noted:
“Although companies that left Russia may have funds recorded in a type “C” account, it is expressly prohibited to collect on them under a writ of execution if the court decision was issued after January 3, 2024 (clause 5 (1) of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of March 5, 2022 No. 95 “On the temporary procedure for fulfilling obligations to certain foreign creditors” as amended by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 8, 2024 No. 44),” the expert comments.