The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the Supreme Court) on April 21, 2020, published a review of court practice of applying laws and measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The key issues deal with how to apply procedural, civil, criminal and administrative legislation, as well as bankruptcy laws (the Review).

In this alert we provide our analysis of the Supreme Court’s clarifications presented in the Review on the most interesting and frequently discussed issues in recent days: whether restrictions can be deemed force majeure or grounds for termination or amendment of a contract, and the legal framework of the “non-working days” in the context of deadlines for performing obligations. In particular, we analyze some of the clarifications in the context of lease agreements.

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