Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin have found a simple way to circumvent the sanctions imposed by Ukraine on their businesses: resorting, through affiliated companies they control in European Union states, to the international arbitration system ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement system) to demand compensation from the authorities in Kiev, according to an investigation carried out by journalists from the website Follow the Money. What at first glance seems like a legal quirk turns out to be, in reality, a major vulnerability of the global economic architecture, exploited at a time when Ukraine is fighting not only on the military front, but also on the financial and legal front.
