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Russia Arbitrator DY Chandrachud: Russia has appointed former Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud as its arbitrator in an investment treaty dispute with Ukraine's state bank, Oschadbank. Costa Rican arbitrator and former trade minister Diala Jimenez has been selected to chair the three-member tribunal, the Global Arbitration Review reports.

Jimenez was jointly elected president by both Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine's Oschadbank has appointed Stavros Brekoulaki, a Greek arbitrator and professor at the National University of Singapore, as the third arbitrator.

What does Ukraine Bank claim?

Oschadbank claims that following Russian military actions in Ukraine, particularly Moscow's large-scale attack on Kiev in February 2022, its assets and operations in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia were liquidated. It is being said that Oschadbank's claim is worth millions of dollars. The Ukrainian bank initiated the arbitration proceedings after it reportedly did not receive any response to the dispute notice given to Russia in July 2025.

The report said that the arbitration has been initiated in accordance with the 1998 Bilateral Investment Treaty between Ukraine and Russia. Russia is being represented by Pinna Goldberg partner Andrea Pinna, lawyer Pratyush Panjwani and senior associate Dimitrios Papageorgiou. Ukraine's Oschadbank, on the other hand, is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan Partners, Epaminondas Triantafillou and Alex Gerby, as well as Astors Partners Oleksiy Didkovsky, Andrey Pozhidayev and Oksana Legka.

Russia–Ukraine investment treaty dispute

Osaidbank had earlier also sued Russia for the losses incurred after Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region in 2014. The Ukrainian bank was awarded approximately US$1.1 billion in 2018 by a tribunal sitting in Paris under UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. However, this award lasted for a long time in the French courts.

In 2021, a French court accepted Russia's argument that the treaty's arbitration offer applied only to investments made after the opening of Oschadbank's Crimea branch, vacating the award, LiveLaw Business reported.

In 2023 and 2024, the tribunal sitting in Paris issued two more decisions

The very next year, i.e. in 2022, the French Court of Cassation re-enacted the award, saying that French courts cannot review the relevant provisions. In 2023 and 2024, the tribunal sitting in Paris issued two more decisions, rejecting Russia's request to change the award based on new evidence. It is reported that the tribunal has directed Moscow to bear the expenses of the revision proceedings.

Recently, the Paris Court of Appeal quashed Russia's request to revise the award and the tribunal's decision on costs order. This is because the Court found that an amicus curiae brief co-signed by arbitrator Charles Browder raised reasonable doubts about his fairness. Therefore, Russia's revision request has still not been decided, and a new arbitral tribunal's decision is needed.

Russia had contacted Chandrachud earlier also

The special thing is that even before Justice Chandrachud had been approached by Russia to act as an arbitrator in the treaty claims brought by the German energy company, Wintershall DEA. Bar & Bench had earlier reported that the German company had initiated arbitration proceedings against Russia under the Energy Charter Treaty. However, Chandrachud rejected these approaches, as they were made on the same day that the Permanent Court of Arbitration made him the appointing authority in the Wintershall proceedings. Chandrachud later resigned from the role of appointing authority after his talks with Russia were revealed.

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