Yukos Capital Limited v The Russian Federation

Facts

The claimant, Yukos Capital Limited, formerly Yukos Capital S.A.R.L., obtained an arbitral award against the Russian Federation on 23 July 2021 for breaches of the Energy Charter Treaty. The arbitration was seated in Switzerland. The claim concerned loans that Yukos SARL said it had made to Yukos Oil Company OJSC. It was brought as an investment claim after Yukos Oil was found responsible for tax fraud, declared insolvent and dissolved. During the arbitration, Yukos SARL entered a merger scheme with a BVI entity, which then took the claimant's name, and Yukos SARL was struck off. The Russian Federation applied to the Swiss court to set the award aside for want of jurisdiction on four grounds: provisional application, passive conduit, abuse of process and unclean hands. On 22 August 2022 the Swiss court dismissed that application. On 8 November 2023 the claimant issued proceedings in England to enforce the award under section 101 of the Arbitration Act 1996, and an order was made on 5 March 2024. On 3 April 2025 the defendant applied to set that order aside, claiming immunity under section 1(1) of the State Immunity Act 1978. It relied on the four Swiss grounds and four new ones. By a consent order of 17 February 2026, Waksman J directed the trial of three preliminary issues. The central issue was whether the Swiss judgment gave rise to a cause of action estoppel or an issue estoppel that stopped the defendant from denying that it had agreed in writing to arbitrate.