General Prosecutor’s Office seeks anti-suit injunction to halt Wintershall arbitration against Russia abroad
Russian authorities, represented by the General Prosecutor’s Office (authorised since 2021 to represent the Russian Federation in foreign courts and arbitrations), have filed a claim with the Moscow Arbitrazh Court seeking to prohibit the continuation of arbitration proceedings initiated by German company Wintershall Dea against Russia at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague. The anti-suit injunction, filed under Article 248.2 of the Arbitrazh Procedure Code (APC), is directed at Wintershall Dea as well as the three arbitrators appointed to hear the case: Charles Poncet, Olufunke Adekoya, and Hamid Gharavi.
Lawyers note that this is the first time such an injunction has been applied for not by a sanctioned company, but by the Russian Federation itself via the General Prosecutor’s Office. Given this, the likelihood of the claim being granted is considered very high.
Details of the claim were reported by RBC, citing a source familiar with its contents. In particular, the Prosecutor’s Office argues that the sanctions imposed against Russia call into question the impartiality and fairness of proceedings held in a foreign jurisdiction. It considers the Netherlands-based PCA not to be a neutral body for Russia, and characterises the appointed arbitrators as “agents of influence and hostages to Western sanctions.”
As for Wintershall Dea – which is claiming “expropriation” of its Russian assets (including a 15.5% stake in Nord Stream’s operator, 25.01% in the “Achim Development” joint project with Gazprom, and more) – the Prosecutor’s Office calls its claims fabricated and baseless. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Wintershall openly demonstrated support for Western sanctions by ceasing commercial activities in Russia “solely for political, not economic reasons, including to the detriment of its shareholders and investors.”
The claim of the Prosecutor’s Office refers to arbitration initiated by the German company under the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty (which Russia signed and temporarily applied but never ratified, officially withdrawing from its provisional application in 2009). In 2024, Wintershall Dea reported that it had initiated two arbitration proceedings against Russia at the PCA, including one based on the bilateral investment treaty between the USSR and West Germany.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Wintershall Dea’s total claims against the Russian Federation amount to no less than EUR 7.5 billion. Under Article 248.2 of the APC, a Russian court may award the Russian claimant in an anti-suit injunction a monetary sum to be recovered from the foreign counterparty, equal to the amount of the claims filed by that party in a foreign court or international commercial arbitration, if the injunction is not complied with. Accordingly, the General Prosecutor’s Office is requesting that the Moscow Arbitrazh Court award it EUR 7.5 billion in the event that Wintershall Dea and/or the arbitrators fail to comply with the injunction.
In January 2023, Wintershall Dea announced its exit from Russia, estimating losses from the move at EUR 5.3 billion. In December 2023, President Vladimir Putin signed decrees under which the rights and obligations of joint ventures involving the company were transferred to limited liability companies established by the Russian government. However, the President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, noted that the decrees did not mean that foreign companies’ assets were being expropriated.