U.S. Investment Fund Sues Russia Over $225Bln in Unpaid Tsarist-Era Debts

American investment fund Noble Capital RSD has filed a lawsuit against Russia seeking more than $225 billion in unpaid debt and other financial obligations of the Russian Empire that the Bolsheviks repudiated after seizing power in 1917. According to the RBC news outlet, which first reported the lawsuit on Thursday, lawyers representing Noble Capital have asked U.S. authorities to seize Russian sovereign assets currently frozen in the country as payment for bonds that have gone unpaid over the past century, arguing that such a move would not violate international law. “The Russian Federation, in breach of the successor government doctrine, has repudiated and continues to repudiate certain sovereign debts for money borrowed by its predecessor government,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S.