Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Law Faculty – Specialist in Russian law, with honors (2010)
Qualified Russian lawyer

• Banking Regulations
• Currency Control
• E-commerce
• Fintech
• M&A and Joint Ventures
• Multi-Jurisdictional Disputes and Enforcement
• Regulatory Investigations
• Russian law expertise
• Sanctions and counter-sanctions

E-Commerce Business

• Set up of an entirely new payment flow for payments by Russian customers to non-Russian sellers at AliExpress e-commerce platform to comply with the Ukraine-related sanctions and countersanctions, including its regulatory approvals – the new flow taking into account Russian payment restrictions, sanctioning and disconnection from SWIFT of major Russian banks allowed AliExpress platform to continue its cross-border operations without interruption
• Ongoing support of cross-border and local payments at AliExpress. This included negotiating and drafting relevant English, Singapore, Hong Kong and Russian law-governed agreements with both foreign and Russian financial institutions covering wide range of payments-related issues (AML, sanctions compliance, FX conversion, currency control)
• Interaction with law enforcement authorities: legal support and representation of AliExpress Group entities and employees before state and law enforcement authorities in the course of routine inspections, participation in administrative matters, communication with law enforcement and other regulatory authorities, obtaining approvals
• Contentious matters (providing legal advice on dispute resolution and litigation matters under both Russian and foreign (English, Singapore, Hong Kong) law, handling pre-trial correspondence with counterparties, employees and authorities to protect interests of the AliExpress Group companies
• Litigation and Arbitration: legal support and representation of the AliExpress Group companies before courts on wide range of cases, including administrative, labour and judicial matters, drafting court documents (claims, responses, appeals, etc), powers of attorney. An example is developing strategy and managing team of external counsel on defence against a copyright infringement claim brought by the holder of IP rights to the “Homunculus Loxodontus” (“Zhdun”) artwork. It was the second case ever in Russia when a claim by a rightholder against a marketplace was considered by higher courts in Russia and dismissed, and the first one where the court has in its judgment analysed in detail the nature and mechanics of marketplace’s business, as well as applied the Hong Kong law-governed T&C of the marketplace
• Trade and Payments & Sanctions compliance (analysing impact of both international sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions on AliExpress Group business, mitigating related risks)
• Information security: legal support of protection of accounts and user data, sellers KYC, vulnerability analysis and counteraction, encryption of data exchange between AliExpress companies and payment service providers (payment processors and credit institutions), legal documenting of secure data transfer by means of API integrations, SFTP servers
• Antifraud: legal advice regarding development of AI for user fraud detection at the AliExpress platform, sellers’ scoring, assistance in investigation of fraud and other illegal activity in the sphere of IT, drafting and amending sellers and user agreements
• M&A: negotiating and drafting foreign law-governed agreements (SPA, SHA, Put Options, Articles of Association) to support acquisitions by AliExpress Group; advising on e-commerce JV documentation. The transaction involved acquisition simultaneously with spin-off of a part of
  target’s business, multi-partite SHA, due diligence of the IT asset

Litigation, Arbitration and Other Contentious Matters

• Acting for Société Générale in a set of litigations related to recovery of the US$60m debt from LLC Grain Company Nastyusha and guarantors from its group under English law-governed loan agreement and deed of guarantee
• Acting for BTA Bank on the enforcement in Russia of the English court judgment against the former bank’s chairman Mr Mukhtar Ablyazov. A decision considered the segregation of competence between Russian courts of general jurisdiction and commercial (arbitrazh) courts on borderline cases (enforcement of an English judgment on corporate claims against an individual rendered under Kazakh law)
• Acting for BNY Mellon’s trustee services arm in a US$207m LPN trustee’s claim recognition proceedings in the bankruptcy of OJSC Finance Leasing Company under an English law-governed Trust Deed. Case considered issues of English law governed security assignment, trustee’s authority, limitation of action
• Acting for US producer of livestock breeding equipment on defending a claim brought by its counterparty in breach of the contract’s arbitration clause and subsequent recovery of legal fees from the losing party
• Acting for Inchcape Plc and its Russian group companies in removing an injunction imposed by a general jurisdiction court
• Acting for MasterCard in the litigation concerning the effect of US law-governed MasterCard Rules on Russian Members of the payment system
• Conducting an internal investigation in the Russian and Central Asia subsidiaries of a global pharmaceutical company on allegations of improper payments to healthcare officials responsible for state procurement
• Advice to an international technology company on the refusal to deal with the distributor on reputational ground
• Advice to an international pharmaceutical company on the compliance risks involved in implementation of the proposed marketing and distributor incentive programs
• Advice to an international pharmaceutical company in connection with launching drug’s marketing program
• Advice to a major international bank in relation to possibility of providing certain banking and financial services and activities in the Russian Federation
• Advice to a major Russian real estate developer in connection with the potential corporate dispute
• Advice to an international investment group in connection with the group’s shareholding in a Russian bank and the disputes with the Russian shareholders under English law governed joint venture documentation
• Acting for Swiss banks in a US$117m claim recognition proceedings in the bankruptcy of a Russian agricultural holding under the Swiss law-governed PXF documentation and Russian security
• Advice to an international business jet aviation company in the criminal investigation following the aircraft crash in the Moscow Vnukovo airport in October 2014
• Acting for a global financial advisor in relation to the inquiry from the US SEC in respect of the activity of the advisor’s clients
• Advice to an international business jet aviation company in administrative proceedings initiated by the Russian customs and border control authorities on the alleged illegal crossing of the Russian border by the crew and the aircraft, including removal of the injunctive order on the aircraft arrest