On 20 April 2010, the Russian Federation's Supreme Arbitration Court overturned the January 2010 decision of the Federal Arbitrazh Court of Moscow region to reject an application of Edimax Limited for interim measures in support of an LCIA arbitration. Edimax Limited had asked the court to attach the assets of a famous Russian developer Shalva Chigrinsky (see Legal update, Commercial element of the dispute – a prerequisite for obtaining interim measures in support of foreign arbitration?).

The Supreme Court decision has 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 commercial arbitrations which have their seat abroad. Article 90(3) provides that interim measures can be granted by the arbitrazh court upon application by a party to the arbitration proceedings at the place of arbitration, or at the place where the debtor is located or has a place of residence. Due to the uncertainty in the terminology of the code, there has previously been a strong belief that Article 90 only applied to domestic arbitrations. However, the recent Supreme Court decision confirms that the Russian courts can grant interim measures with regard to foreign arbitrations as well.