СПОР О РОССИЙСКИХ СУВЕРЕННЫХ АКТИВАХ: ЖАЖДА МЕСТИ, ВИГИЛАНТИЗМ И ЮРИСДИКЦИОННЫЕ ИММУНИТЕТЫ ГОСУДАРСТВ

Закон. 2026. Т. 4. № 4. С. 126–146.

Starzhenetsky V., Буянкин А. А.

The freezing of the sovereign assets of the Russian Federation by
Western countries in 2022, their use and the currently debated
confiscation have no precedent in world history. Since the very
beginning of this conflict, the Russian Federation has been declaring
the illegality of such actions and their inconsistency with international
law governing the jurisdictional immunities of States. For their
part, Western lawyers are vigorously searching for legal grounds
that would allow them justify the coercive measures taken against
Russian sovereign assets. Among the proposals that are articulated
most frequently are the following: 1) non-application of jurisdictional
immunities to the actions of executive and legislative branches of
power; 2) third parties countermeasures to secure war reparations
in favor of Ukraine; 3) enforcement of international court judgements
against Russia; 4) regulatory powers of states where disputed assets
are located; 5) recognising Russia as a state sponsoring terrorism;
6) creation of new norms of customary international law allowing such
coercive measures. The article provides a critical analysis of these
proposals from an international law perspective. The authors conclude
that modern international law does not contain grounds for lifting
Russian jurisdictional immunities, and the ideas about the contrary are
not adequately supported neither by state practice, nor opinio juris.
Actions of the Western states in this context have little to do with the
resolution of the Ukrainian crisis and international law in general and
may be considered as an example of dangerous vigilantism.

Keywords: countermeasures, контрмеры, jurisdictional immunities, юрисдикционные иммунитеты, исполнение решений международных судов, vigilantism, enforcement of international court decisions, sponsors of terrorism, спонсоры терроризма, вигилантизм

Publication based on the results of: International protection of economic rights in the context of sanctions (2025)