Supreme Court reports increased cases involving Asian companies
Russian arbitrazh (commercial) courts are seeing an increase in the number of cases involving foreign companies and non-residents from the Asia-Pacific region, Russian Supreme Court acting chairman Yury Ivanenko said at the International Legal Forum of Asia-Pacific Countries in St. Petersburg.
"Due to Russia's high involvement in global economic ties, the number of cases involving foreign companies and non-residents from Asia-Pacific jurisdictions is increasing," Interfax quoted Ivanenko as saying. These cases, he said, are heard in Russian arbitrazh (commercial) courts based on both international and domestic law.
The Asia-Pacific region includes countries friendly to Russia (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand) as well as a number of unfriendly countries (South Korea, Japan, Singapore). According to the Federal Customs Service, in January-July 2025, Asia accounted for 77% of Russia's merchandise exports and 66% of Russian imports.
As Russia's economy reorients eastwards, the number of transactions with Chinese companies, for example, is growing and, as a result, the number of disputes with them is increasing, Kommersant newspaper wrote earlier in 2025. Although in many cases disputes can be settled out of court, a significant number of them are being heard by international commercial arbitration tribunals and Russian courts of law, the newspaper noted, citing lawyers.
In a number of cases, disputes in Russian arbitrazh (commercial) courts with counterparties from the Asia-Pacific region stem in one way or another from geopolitical events or anti-Russian sanctions. For example, in 2023, South Korea's Hanwha Corporation petitioned a Russian arbitrazh (commercial) court to recognise and enforce a 2021 award handed down by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board seeking compensation from Russia's Transmekhservice LLC for delayed payments under a sales contract. The Arbitrazh (Commercial) Court of the Moscow Region in 2024 denied the petition on the grounds that the case affects public policy of the Russian Federation and the consequences of enforcing a foreign arbitral award "would directly jeopardise the national and military security of the Russian state". (South Korea is on the list of unfriendly states; and the plaintiff is part of a South Korean conglomerate whose companies develop weapons.)
In 2023, an arbitration tribunal of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) awarded compensation in favour of Russian manufacturer Silovye Mashiny (Power Machines) against Vietnamese state-owned company PetroVietnam in a dispute over the construction of a thermal power plant in Vietnam. As the media reported, this was the first post-2022 public victory of a sanctioned Russian company in an international arbitration case. Silovye Mashiny applied to a Russian commercial court for recognition and enforcement of the award, and the court supported the applicant.