In a historic finale to one of the world’s most expensive legal sagas, the Dutch Supreme Court has rejected Russia’s final appeal to overturn $50 billion in arbitral awards owed to former shareholders of Yukos Oil Co., sealing the Kremlin’s fate in a case that has haunted it for two decades.
The ruling, issued Friday, closes the door on all legal remedies available to Moscow and confirms that the awards—now totaling over $65 billion with interest—are “final, irreversible, and enforceable” against Russia’s state assets across the globe, according to GML Ltd., the parent company representing former Yukos shareholders Hulley Enterprises Ltd., Veteran Petroleum Ltd., and Yukos Universal Ltd.
“No More Appeals — Justice Has Spoken”
In its published decision, the high court declared, “The Supreme Court dismisses the appeal,” ordering the Russian Federation to pay approximately €18,610 ($19,800) in legal costs and interest if payment is delayed. The court emphasized that this ruling “definitively ends” all proceedings by Russia to set aside the arbitration awards.
“This is it,” a GML spokesperson said Friday. “Set-aside is now done. We won.”
The monumental ruling stems from the 2014 arbitral tribunal in The Hague, which found that Russia illegally expropriated Yukos, once the country’s largest oil producer. The dismantling of the company—engineered under the guise of fraudulent tax claims—was widely viewed as politically motivated, following a fallout between Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and President Vladimir Putin.
