“How cross-border bankruptcy occurs in Russia” — Ekaterina Mikhalskaya for RBC Pro

If your debtor managed to get a passport of another country before its default, you will have to prove that it should go bankrupt in Russia in order not to chase it around the world.

Ekaterina Mikhalskaya, Managing Partner of Prime Advice:

The desire of debtors to transfer a dispute to another jurisdiction is usually associated with a not very good-faith intention to complicate the already difficult situation of the creditor. In our experience, cross-border bankruptcies involving Russian business debtors are more like long-term, often unsolvable puzzles. The absence of international conventions makes any process meaningless, because even if it is possible to achieve some temporary solution (for example, an order on interim measures), everything is blocked by the inability to enforce it. Complicating the case is the completely different mentality and evidence system of different national courts. For example, in one of our cases, the debtor's property was concentrated in the United States, and he actively avoided participating in the case. The American court for the seizure of property required a sworn assurance of the circumstances from the creditor. For our practice, such evidence in bankruptcy is not typical.

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