A U.S. judge is being asked by JPMorgan Chase to dismiss its lawsuit against Russia’s VTB Bank over a frozen $439.5 million claim. The move comes as the bank seeks to avoid potential risks tied to operations in Russia should sanctions or bans on cross-border litigation be violated, according to reports from Reuters.
The banks’ dispute has already seen a bilateral tightening: in June, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region barred JPMorgan from initiating or continuing proceedings abroad related to funds that were blocked in connection with the sanctions regime. JPMorgan contends that continuing the international dispute would expose it to unfamiliar and possibly unlawful exposures in a jurisdiction where the legal framework for such matters is evolving and where enforcement risk is high.
JPMorgan first filed a lawsuit on April 18 seeking to halt VTB from pursuing recovery of the $439.5 million tied to an account that was frozen after the onset of a special operation and subsequent sanctions. The U.S. bank argued that VTB had filed a counterclaim in Russia the day before, describing the filing as a clear breach of the two banks’ New York dispute resolution agreement that governs cross-border disputes between them.
The evolving narrative suggests that VTB, which had previously indicated a preference for resolving disputes in the United States rather than in Russia, faced a sudden legal barrier after a Russian court issued an order preventing JPMorgan from pursuing litigation against VTB outside Russia. This sequence underscores the tension between international arbitration norms and the practical enforcement landscape shaped by sanctions and domestic court rulings.
In related developments, observers noted that the grounds for a central bank review concerning a prominent owner of Rost Bank had emerged earlier in the year, pointing to broader regulatory scrutiny that sometimes intersects with international financial disputes. The timeline also references a prior move where remuneration-related issues at QIWI Bank faced a separate freeze, highlighting how sanctions-oriented financial actions can intersect with corporate governance and executive compensation matters. These threads collectively illustrate the fragility and complexity of cross-border financial litigation under a tightening sanctions regime and the way courts in different jurisdictions respond to requests that cross national lines.