"Ultimately, this is a claim for repayment of debt instruments to which the court has held there is no justifiable defense. It would not be right to order the case to go forward to a full trial in such circumstances. Accordingly, for the reasons set out above, the Trustee is entitled to summary judgment. The terms of that judgment require determination, and there is a number of consequential matters which the court will proceed to deal with," the judge said in a statement.
The decision thus upheld Russia's initial request for a quick trial without pleadings.
The debt was secured by Ukrainian former President Viktor Yanukovych’s government in 2013 and is now alleged by Ukraine as part of an external commercial debt. Russia argues that the bond is a sovereign loan provided by one state to another and demands to classify the failure to pay back the debt as a default.
