In April 2010, the Russian Federation's Supreme Arbitration Court issued a notable ruling in the Edimax Limited case (April 20, 2010, case N 17095/09) when it held that the Russian courts can grant interim measures in support of international commercial arbitrations which have their seat abroad (see Legal update, The Russian Federation's Supreme Arbitration Court ruled in favour of interim measures to support foreign arbitration).

The Supreme Court decision finally resolved the debate as to whether the Russian courts can rely on Article 90(3) of the Russian Arbitrazh Court code to grant interim measures in support of international arbitrations abroad. Due to the uncertainty in the terminology of the code, there has previously been a strong belief that Article 90(3) only applied to domestic arbitrations. The ruling of the Supreme Court has established a positive trend in court practice and in May 2010, the Supreme Arbitration Court even recognised that Russian courts can grant interim measures in support of foreign litigation proceedings (Whitewater case, May 4, 2010, case N VAS-2860/10).

In August 2010, the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry adopted Guidelines on the impartiality and independence of arbitrators (see Legal update, Russia: new rules on impartiality and independence of arbitrators). The decision was apparently taken because of the number of court cases considering the criteria for independence and impartiality of the arbitrators in the context of challenges to arbitral awards or objections to enforcement proceedings. The Guidelines are non-binding and apply in addition to any arbitration institutional rules chosen by the parties and the applicable law. They can also be relied on by the Russian state courts when considering challenges to or enforcement of arbitral awards when the impartiality and independence of the arbitrators becomes an issue. It is hoped that the adoption of the Guidelines will make such court practice more consistent and predictable. The Guidelines take into account the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration and the rules of various international arbitral centres.