The American investment fund Noble Capital has filed a lawsuit against Russia, demanding payment of $225.8 billion of debts on bonds from the time of the Russian Empire. The corresponding application was sent to the US Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.

The fund claims that Russia, as the successor state of the Russian Empire, allegedly refused to fulfill sovereign debt obligations issued more than a hundred years ago to American investors. Noble Capital claims to be the legal successor and owner of these bonds and demands debt repayment on this basis.

Recall that in October 1918, shortly after the Bolsheviks seized power, their Council of People’s Commissars repudiated the sovereign debt and other financial obligations of the Russian Empire. This position shocked international finance and triggered unanimous worldwide condemnation. Bolshevik Russia completely fell out of the world economy as a result of this development and sealed itself up in isolation,

In addition to the Russian Federation itself, there are several government agencies among the defendants, including the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the National Welfare Fund of Russia (NWF). The court made the last procedural decision in November – the Russian side was ordered to submit a response to the claim no later than 29th January 2026.

Particular attention in the lawsuit is paid to the source of possible payments. Noble Capital is seeking permission to make settlements on the required amount at the expense of frozen Russian assets. After the start of the Russia-Ukraine War in February 2022, the EU and G7 countries blocked about half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves. More than 200 billion euros, according to open data, are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian depository Euroclear.

PHOTO: Bond of the Russian Empire

In response, Moscow introduced restrictive measures: the assets of foreign investors from “unfriendly countries” and income on them are accumulated in special type “C” accounts. Access to these accounts is possible only by decision of a government commission.

The Bank of Russia, in turn, has also filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in the amount of more than 18 trillion rubles  ($228.4 billion USD). The regulator points out that the actions of the European depository caused direct damage due to the inability to dispose of funds belonging to Russia.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly stated that the ideas of seizing Russian assets are actually robbery. According to him, such steps undermine the foundations of the global financial system and can lead to serious losses for its participants.

Experts note that Noble Capital’s lawsuit fits into the general line of pressure on Russia through legal and financial mechanisms. The appeal to the debts of the pre-revolutionary era looks not so much a legal as a political attempt to legalize the seizure of frozen assets.

In fact, we are talking about creating a precedent in which Western structures are trying to gain access to Russian reserves through US courts, hiding behind historical obligations of a hundred years ago.

It is interesting to note, that this is not the first time this issue has been raised. Numerous attempts to recoup bonds issued during the Russian Empire failed, given the current state of Russian-US relations, so will this one.

© Рaul Gilbert. 16 January 2025