Introduction

Litigation is usually not the best way to collect from a defaulted sovereign debtor: a creditor is highly likely to obtain a judgment against the defaulted debtor, but it is usually quite hard to enforce the judgment and collect the debt. Yet, Russia has not waited long after Ukraine's default on $3bn of bonds in December 2015 to announce that it is taking the dispute to court. As discussed below, both economics and politics of this dispute have pushed it toward litigation and will continue to discourage the parties from settling, barring a much wider agreement on the more ...