Making Putin Pay: Inside the Plan to Claw Back Ukraine’s Stolen Billions

Making Putin Pay: Inside the Plan to Claw Back Ukraine’s Stolen Billions

July 5, 2023, Politico

David Pinsky's commentary as counsel to Naftogaz was included in an article appearing in Politico discussing his team's recent filing in D.C. federal court to enforce a $5-billion arbitration award arising from the Kremlin's seizure of Naftogaz's assets in Crimea in 2014.

According to Dave, “Russia obviously can just flat-out decline to voluntarily pay, but the challenge for Russia is that it has commercial activity all over the world. And the benefit of an arbitration award is that it can be enforced in any country. That commercial activity risks being disrupted, those assets stand at risk of being seized and being executed upon. If I was the Russian Federation, I’d be quite concerned about that.”

According to Dave, Naftogaz's lawyers are working to identify jurisdictions where the team can file enforcement petitions, and with asset-tracing firms to catalogue the Russian state property that could ultimately be confiscated.

“We’re getting started and we’re going to be moving aggressively forward,” he said, adding that the case marks “a precedent. It’s the tip of the spear on recovering value on behalf of Ukraine in Crimea."

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