- January 16, 2026
- 6:43 pm
- World News
A lawsuit has been filed in a U.S. federal court that harkens back to century-old legal disputes but with a very modern agenda. The American investment fund Noble Capital RSD is seeking to recover up to $225 billion from the Russian Federation for 1916 Russian Empire bonds and directly points to frozen Russian assets abroad as a potential source for debt repayment.
The defendants in the case are named as the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the National Wealth Fund. The plaintiff claims to own imperial bonds worth $25 million with a 5.5% coupon, placed through the National City Bank of New York, and estimates the total obligations, including interest and the so-called “gold clause,” at a minimum of $225 billion.
In the lawsuit materials, the fund insists that the refusal to fulfill obligations violates the doctrine of succession of power. According to Noble Capital RSD, Russia, as the successor to the USSR, inherited not only assets but also debts, including pre-revolutionary securities, which, the plaintiff claims, were not terminated concerning American investors.
The lawsuit separately outlines a mechanism for possible court decision enforcement. The fund directly links its claims to Russian assets frozen after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and especially after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022. The plaintiff emphasizes that this is not about confiscation but about debt offset as a form of obligation fulfillment, which, it claims, is in accordance with international law.
There has been no official reaction from Moscow to the lawsuit yet. Meanwhile, the Russian side’s position on “tsarist debts” remains unchanged. Sergey Sokolov, a partner at Marks & Sokolov, representing the defendants’ interests, stated that the bonds were annulled by the Soviet government back in 1918 and “long sent to the dustbin of history.” According to him, neither the USSR nor the Russian Federation ever recognized responsibility for these papers.
The Russian side has already demanded that the fund withdraw the lawsuit by January 30. If this does not happen, lawyers intend to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.
The lawsuit’s history unfolds against the backdrop of a massive blockade of Russian reserves. After the war began, EU and G7 countries froze about half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves. More than €200 billion are in the European Union, mainly in accounts of the Belgian depository Euroclear.
In response, Moscow introduced special “C” type accounts, where assets of investors from “unfriendly” countries and their income are accumulated. Withdrawal of funds is possible only by decision of a government commission. Simultaneously, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear for more than 18 trillion rubles, accusing the EU of attempting to appropriate assets.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that any attempts to use frozen reserves undermine the foundations of the global financial system. Earlier, Vladimir Putin called such ideas robbery and warned of long-term losses for the global financial order.
Lawyers note that even if the American court accepts the Noble Capital RSD lawsuit for consideration, the prospect of actual recovery remains highly uncertain. Issues of state immunity, succession, and the admissibility of sovereign asset offsets are in a gray area of international law and directly depend on the political context.
For global markets, this case is important not so much because of the amount but because of the consequences. It tests the boundaries of the sanctions regime, the role of American courts in cross-border financial conflicts, and the very concept of dealing with frozen state assets. That is why the dispute over the “tsarist debt” goes far beyond archival bonds and becomes part of a large geopolitical discussion, closely followed by readers of NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency.
