The Ministry of Justice is developing a concept for receiving compensation from the Russian Federation
Ukraine intends to confiscate Russian assets to compensate for losses from the war. Deputy Minister of Justice Irina Mudra spoke about the work of lawyers on national television on Thursday, June 9. She listed three tools – an appeal to the ECtHR, the International Court of Justice and investment arbitration. – These are three instruments, there are also national courts. There is a decision that the court of Ukraine ruled that the court has the right to ignore the immunity of the Russian Federation on claims of individuals in the Russian Federation. Such a conclusion is quite controversial and is unlikely to be able to be auxiliary citizens. With such judicial practice, one must wait, because it can be harmful. It is impossible to implement such decisions abroad, Mudra noted. She acknowledged that all of these mechanisms are either poorly accessible or not effective at all. Therefore, by presidential decree, a working group was created to develop and implement international mechanisms for compensating for the damage caused. This group included civil servants, representatives of parliament, representatives of the government, the president, and lawyers. It was instructed to develop legal mechanisms for compensation. – A key concept of a comprehensive system of coordinates has been developed to ensure real compensation through the conclusion of a multilateral international agreement between Ukraine and the states concerned. Basically, we are talking about the states on whose territories the assets of the Russian Federation are located, which are frozen, blocked, fell under sanctions. This agreement will provide for a mechanism for considering the claims of Ukraine, individuals and legal entities affected by Russian aggression, the mechanism will provide for a mechanism to ensure the availability of Russian property, through which compensation will occur, as well as an execution mechanism. That is, like a compensation commission, which will have jurisdiction to consider applications from legal entities and individuals of states, make decisions, and such a decision will be carried out at the expense of funds that must be transferred to the fund, the compensation fund, which will consist of those assets that were frozen in different jurisdictions, from the most monetary funds. Our vision is that this should be the funds of the Russian Federation itself, blocked by the Central Bank, funds received from the sale of assets, – said the Deputy Minister. At the moment, the key question is how to make this mechanism work without the consent of the Russian Federation. – We are trying to convince that an international treaty will be one in which these issues are systematically resolved by the instruments of an international treaty. Countries are listening, the process has begun, no one said it was impossible. Now we are in the stage of detailed negotiations, international meetings will begin next week, and at the level of officials we are already starting negotiations, and then lawyers will join, Mudra noted. The Ministry of Justice also recommends that businesses carefully collect and record all evidence base of damages.
