Reshetnikov spoke about new agreements to protect Russian investors

Over the past decade, Russian investors have received at least $170 million in compensation under international agreements on mutual protection of investments. This was stated by the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov at the strategic session on foreign economic activity on January 20.

He noted that the agency is negotiating such agreements with seven other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand.

Currently, the Russian Federation has 63 investment protection agreements in force, RBC clarifies. Historically, they were concluded mainly with European countries, but after 2014 the focus shifted to the countries of the global South. Nine new or updated treaties were signed with Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Cambodia, Morocco, Myanmar, China, the Republic of the Congo and Palestine. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, work is currently underway with countries in whose markets Russian businesses are already present or planning investments, such as India, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco and Tanzania.

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The most successful cases of protecting the interests of Russian investors concerned disputes with former Soviet republics. Well-known examples are the cases of Tatneft against Ukraine (compensation of about $110 million), Manolium Processing against Belarus ($20 million) and RusHydro against Kyrgyzstan (several tens of millions of dollars). At the end of 2025, Inter RAO's dispute with Georgia ended, and the parties entered into a settlement agreement on the payment of "large compensation" until 2028.

"For example, the state is building a road, the road passes through a village, two houses in which foreign investors own property need to be demolished. And measures related to the nationalization or expropriation of property are applied to them, since it interferes with the implementation of a state project. <...> A significant number of disputes are related to the regulatory activities of the state," says Maxim Medvedkov, adviser to the WTO Expert Center.

Most often, disputes concerned two types of violations by States: expropriation (direct or indirect seizure of assets) and discrimination when foreign investors are not provided equal conditions compared to local market participants. The key guarantees in the agreements are Fair and Equitable Treatment and protection from expropriation without compensation.

After 2022, the number of lawsuits filed by Russian investors against European countries in connection with the freezing of assets and the imposition of sanctions has increased dramatically. Despite the fact that the European Union (EU), as part of the 18th package of sanctions, banned the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards against member states, investors still have the opportunity to foreclose on the state assets of these countries outside the association on the basis of the New York Convention.

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New agreements signed in 2025 with China, Myanmar and Congo demonstrate a shift towards greater flexibility and control by the state. They usually provide for the choice of an arbitration forum: ad hoc arbitration under the rules of the UNCITRAL, neutral centers like the Hong Kong or Dubai International Arbitration Center, or any other institution by agreement of the parties. This allows you to "untie" the procedure from a specific, potentially unfriendly jurisdiction.

Investment arbitration is a lengthy (4-5 years) and expensive (on average $4-7 million) procedure with unpredictable results. An early strategy is of key importance: the correct structuring of investments to fall under the protection of agreements, the choice of an arbitration forum and the composition of the tribunal, as well as a plan for the future execution of the decision, especially taking into account the sanctions risks.

Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at AMarkets, reported on December 24 last year that the introduction of a limit of 300 thousand rubles per year per investor when buying cryptocurrencies would not be able to fully protect businessmen from losses, but reflected the regulator's recognition of the scale and reality of the crypto market. According to him, cryptocurrency remains a highly volatile instrument.

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