Mixed Messages: Developments In Recognition Of Foreign Arbitral Awards In Russia

 A recent Russian Supreme Court decision appears to have been markedly hostile to international arbitration. In Dredging and Maritime Management SA v AO InzhTransStroy, the court found that an arbitration agreement that appears to have been based in whole or in part on the ICC's own model clause was defective, and that the resultant award should not be recognised or enforced.

Such has been the concern over this that on 12 November 2018 the president of the ICC Court took the rare step of writing to the chairman of the Russian Supreme Court asking for an explanation. But just a few days later, on 21 November 2018, the Russian Arbitration Association published an important year-long study of all Russian court decisions over the past 10 years that related to the New York Convention, concluding that: "Russian courts are arbitration friendly – in various years, 80 to 97% of all [recognition and enforcement] applications were granted".