Russian Constitutional Court Denies Controlling Person’s Expanded Rights to Challenge Judgments: Commentary by Denis Danilov for PRObankrotstvo

In Ruling No. 1151-O/2026, the Russian Constitutional Court refused to accept the complaint of Alexey Dorofeev (a CP), who sought to challenge provisions of Article 311 of the Commercial Procedure Code and Paragraph 12 of Article 16 of the Russian Bankruptcy Law.

The applicant wanted to review a 2019 judgment to reduce the debtor’s penalty and, consequently, the scope of his subsidiary liability, but the courts returned his application due to the absence of substantial new facts.

KK&P Senior Associate Denis Danilov commented on the Court’s conclusions as follows:

“The Constitutional Court rightly noted that CPs have the right to seek a review of judgments based on new/newly discovered circumstances, but the issue of the well-foundedness of such an application is assessed by the court. Had the complaint been granted, CPs would have received expanded opportunities to challenge judgments, which would have gone beyond the scope of review and negatively affected the interests of competing creditors. 

For now, CPs seeking review must present circumstances that were not known to the court and could lead to a different judgment on the merits of the dispute.

Additionally, they must confirm the impossibility of representing the debtor’s interests or otherwise shaping the debtor’s position when the challenged judgment was adopted (Clauses 46, 47 of Plenum Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 40 dated 17 December 2024).”

Thus, the Constitutional Court rejected the attempt by the controlling person to simplify the process of setting aside old judgments affecting the scope of subsidiary liability, confirming that the existing review mechanism is sufficient.

Full version of the article (in Russian): https://probankrotstvo.ru/news/konstitucionnyi-sud-zashhitil-mexanizmy-peresmotra-aktov-v-bankrotstve-10662