Seems like they’d have a good case.
I’m presuming that reparations would be a big part of any cease-fire/peace treaty, depending on how soundly “disappointed” the Russians end up.
If not, there’s somewhat of a precedent in 1970’s Chile; when Allende nationalized the copper mines and did not satisfy the big American conglomerates that it was a fair price, they sued in assorted European courts. While AFAIK the cases never finished, while the cases were in the courts for months or years, the shiploads of copper ore were effectively frozen in port, depriving Chile of much-needed foreign exchange revenue. Similarly we hear about assorted cases where governments or companies go after third-world assets like national airline aircraft when there is an unsettled debt.
Presumably the same would apply to this war - anyone whose property was destroyed, including the Ukrainian government, could sue Russia anywhere that there is money sitting in a bank or to be paid to Russia for gas etc. and at the very least freeze those assets until the case is settled. I doubt the European courts are inclined to give Russia the benefit of the doubt at this time…
That would be a decent incentive for Russia to come to an agreement.
In what court that Russia would recognize and submit to?
Their own. Verdict: INNOCENT! LOL
I thought the deal was that the country in which Russia was sued would take Russian stuff in their country to a metaphorical pawn shop and pay the guy doing the suing with the dough they got from it.
I would be concerned with saddling Russia with some sort of long-term obligation here, justified as it may be. We want to punish the people who propagated this war, and their enablers, but I would think we would not want to alienate the whole of the Russian people, who were in the process of joining the global economy prior to the war. We do not want Russia to turn completely into another North Korea.
I think reparations are in order, but must be carefully constructed and appear “fair” to both sides, so simmering resentment does not push Russia in the wrong directions (akin to how Germany developed following WWI, which may have enabled the rise of the Nazis).
I strongly suspect that (as @md-2000 mentioned upthread) a lot of this is going to be decided ahead of the time -if- there is a negotiated settlement. Which I’m less certain of that I was 2 weeks ago, but that’s another thread.
If it does happen, I’d bet Putin would demand an end to most/all of the economic sanctions and immunity from prosecution in various international courts for Russia proper and most of his cronies. Again, whether he will get it or not is far from certain, and even then, I suspect every citizen of the Ukraine would be happy to sue individually, whether or not their is an agreement on the national level.
So I suspect the various frozen assets will be frozen for years to come in various courts across the nation. If it were me, I would certainly also attempt to place liens against any profits of sales of Russian petrochemicals going forward in the EU or other ‘neutral’ courts for damages.
Russia needs to pay reparations for the stolen aircraft. It involves a lot of countries.
And if this is part of a negotiated settlement, then likely it will come at a very heavy price. Hey Vlad, what’s it worth to you? Will the rest of Russia be OK with that when you lose your grip?
IIRC the problem with WWI reparations would be analogous not to rebuilding the Ukrainian infrastructure but if NATO now demanded Russia pay for all the Javelins and other billions in munitions shipped to the Ukrainian forces, cost of relocating extra troops to NATO front lines (“just in case”) etc. i.e - piling on the debt “just because…”
There are all sorts of pressure that may be brought to bear. Ongoing heavy sanctions, they won’t just blow over when the troops leave. The Ukrainians or their government may sue all over the world. NATO might even decide that without any other settlement and guarantees, It would be advantageous for Ukraine to join NATO; after all, they’ve seen what the Russian military were capable of before their armies were destroyed, so they know the threat. Should NATO sell cruise missiles to Ukraine? More advanced drones? maybe a few stealth bombers? The question would be, what pressure can Russia take before it agrees to settle?
If they get too uppity, perhaps NATO will chime in with some sort of inspection guarantees to stop Russia from constantly threatening to end it all with nuclear weapons… plus inspections of chemical and biological labs.
How badly can Russia lose before it decides that it would be prudent to give up and deal from a small measure of strength?