When YouTube blocked three Russian channels it said were controlled by sanctioned supporters of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the US video company thought any disputes would be resolved in courts in California and England.
It couldn’t have been more wrong. Almost two years on — and nine countries later — the Russian media firms behind those channels turned to the South African courts in the latest bid to enforce a Moscow judge’s decision to issue fines for Google, YouTube’s parent company, which now run into billions of dollars.
The case is a sign of how multinational companies are finding themselves unexpectedly exposed to the Russian legal system, and in turn wider political disputes. After Russian judges used new laws to allow businesses affected by sanctions to pursue Western companies overseas, courts in England and elsewhere have issued previously rare counter-rulings. The rows threaten to undermine decades of mutual recognition among legal systems that underpin world trade, the experts fear.
“The scale and intensity of legal nationalism and lawfare in the current geopolitical conflict are largely unprece