Russia constitutional court: Russia need not pay reparations to Yukos shareholders News
Russia constitutional court: Russia need not pay reparations to Yukos shareholders

The Russian Constitutional Court [official website, in Russian] ruled [press release, in Russian] Thursday that Russia does not have to comply with a 2014 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] order to pay 1.9 billion Euros to former shareholders of Yukos, an oil company that was nationalized by the Russian government more than a decade ago. The court found that the ECHR ruling violates the Russian constitution. The decision can not be reviewed by any other Russian court.

Russia’s decision to nationalize Yukos received a great deal of legal push-back in the previous decade, but the tide seems to be turning back in Russia’s favor. In March the Hague District Court overturned [JURIST report] a 2014 order that Russia pay $50 billion to former shareholders of Yukos. The 2014 ECHR decision came after years of litigation over the Russian government’s nationalization of the Yukos oil company. In 2005 the majority shareholder of Yukos sued [JURIST report] the Russian government for over $28 billion, saying the government’s sale of the oil company’s production arm was illegal. Russia auctioned [JURIST report] the production facilities of Yukos in December of 2004 to another Russian oil company, Rosneft Oil Company.