Can you initiate a lawsuit against Russia in the United States to recover seized assets?

Question

Ever since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia has halted payments to international creditors and individuals holding assets like stocks.

Is it possible for an average person who happens to possess Russian dividend-paying shares, such as those of Gazprom, to initiate a lawsuit against the Russian government in U.S. courts to assert their rights to the assets that have gone missing?

What would compensation look like? Would the U.S. federal government pay the individual on behalf of the Russian government before the State Department took over and issued an invoice? Or would we simply obtain a judgment, with the individual expected to pursue a foreign government on their own?

Answer 1

Is it possible for an average person who happens to possess Russian dividend-paying shares, such as those of Gazprom, to initiate a lawsuit against the Russian government in U.S. courts to assert their rights to the assets that have gone missing?

Only if that Russian company has sufficient contacts with the U.S. to subject it to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, and even then, only against the Russian company, not against the Russian government, and even then, only if a choice of venue provision in the relevant contract doesn't preclude that forum. Often contracts like that are subject to arbitration in an international arbitration forum.

Would the U.S. federal government pay the individual on behalf of the Russian government before the State Department took over and issued an invoice?

No, even assuming that the U.S. courts had jurisdiction over the defendant and entered a judgment against it.

Or would we simply obtain a judgment, with the individual expected to pursue a foreign government on their own?

Yes. Usually, you wouldn't pursue the foreign government, however, you would pursue the entity that owed you money. Sometimes this might be possible from its non-Russian assets. If not, Russian courts might enforce the U.S. court order, but probably wouldn't.