The Paris Judicial Court has recognized and granted leave to enforce (exequatur) in France the landmark USD 5 billion final award issued by an arbitral tribunal in The Hague against the Russian Federation.
The relevant statement was made by Naftogaz Group’s press service, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“As part of this process, Naftogaz has already registered mortgages on several Russian state-owned assets located in France worth over EUR 120 million – a first step towards enforcement of the award,” the report states.
The French proceedings are being led by Le 16 Law, a Paris-based dispute resolution boutique. The team is headed by partners Julie Spinelli and Alexandra Szekely, with support from associates Pauline Gadd, Carl Szymura, and Emma Ruby. The process of obtaining the exequatur order to enforce the final award was carried out pro bono by the Le 16 Law team.
“Our team is pursuing every available legal avenue to enforce the award and ensure Russia is held accountable for its unlawful actions. The decision to boost our enforcement strategy in this case was one of my first after assuming leadership of Naftogaz in December 2024. The French Court’s decision is yet another significant milestone in our international legal strategy. We are grateful to Le 16 Law team and to our long-standing partner and lead counsel in the case – Covington and Burling, namely David Pinsky, Clovis Trevino and Paris Aboro,” Naftogaz Group Board Acting Chairman Roman Chumak noted.
In his words, Naftogaz continues to coordinate enforcement efforts across multiple jurisdictions, with successful actions already underway in the United Kingdom and Finland. The company remains resolute in its efforts to recover the full value of the award.
A reminder that, in December 2024, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands dismissed the cassation appeal of the Russian Federation to overturn the Partial Award of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague regarding compensation for damages caused by the illegal expropriation of Naftogaz Group’s assets in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
In October 2016, Naftogaz and another six companies, which are part of Naftogaz Group, initiated arbitration proceedings against the Russian Federation at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) based on the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Russian Federation on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments.
Naftogaz requested that the PCA oblige Russia to pay compensation for the violation of the investment protection agreement, in particular for the illegal expropriation of Naftogaz’s strategically important energy investments, which became one of Russia’s main targets in Crimea in 2014.
In February 2019, the PCA issued a partial award in favor of Naftogaz, confirming its jurisdiction over the case and establishing that Russia had breached its obligations under the Investment Protection Agreement by illegally expropriating Naftogaz’s investments in Crimea.
The second stage of the arbitration proceedings involved determining the amount of compensation for the losses suffered by Naftogaz Group. In July 2022, the Hague Court of Appeal confirmed the jurisdiction of the PCA in this case.
On April 12, 2023, the PCA ordered Russia to pay USD 5 billion in compensation for the losses caused by the seizure of the assets of Naftogaz Group’s companies in Crimea in 2014. The arbitration award came after hearings to determine the amount of compensation, which ended in March 2022 against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source: French court allows $5B to be forcefully recovered from Russia in favor of Naftogaz
