A U.S. investment fund recently filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court, demanding that Russia repay old debts from the Russian Empire era, totaling as much as $225 billion. This is a commercial litigation action by a private investment institution, not an official action by the U.S. government, but its timing and demands are closely related to current geopolitics.
Why bring up the old debt now?
The main purpose of this lawsuit is not merely to recover historical debts; there are more direct geopolitical and practical considerations behind it:
The core objective is to find a "legal" way to use the approximately $30 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves frozen by the West due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The fund directly requests the court to approve using the frozen Russian sovereign assets in the U.S. to repay this "debt."
The bonds involved in the U.S. company's lawsuit were issued by the Russian Empire in 1916 to support World War I and other purposes, to international (mainly French, British, and American) investors. After the October Revolution in 1917, the Soviet government issued a decree declaring its refusal to assume all foreign debts of the Russian Empire and the provisional government.
The plaintiff argues that the Russian Federation is the successor to the Russian Empire and should repay the debt. However, Russia's legal position is that the Soviet Union has rejected the old debts, and the Russian Federation mainly inherits the assets and debts of the Soviet Union, and does not recognize any legal responsibility for the debts of the Russian Empire. Historically, Russia has made "settlement" small compensation agreements with France, Britain, and other countries, but there has been no such agreement with the United States.
Regarding the prospects of the lawsuit, legal experts generally believe that the fund has a very low chance of winning. The main obstacles include: the principle of state sovereignty immunity (foreign governments are usually not subject to U.S. courts), a statute of limitations over a hundred years, and complex disputes under international law regarding the succession of debts after regime changes.
Analysts believe that this is a commercial lawsuit where U.S. private capital is taking advantage of the "opportunity window" created by the freezing of Russian assets after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, attempting to turn a century-old historical debt into a real geopolitical tool. Its true purpose is not to win the case, but to set a precedent, increase Russia's cost of confrontation, and provide a "case" for the West to use Russia's frozen assets.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1854714013488140/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.