The Court of the Appeal of The Hague has dismissed the Russian Federation’s application to set aside the $50 billion arbitration award – the largest in history – that the Russian government was ordered to pay by the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2014.

The saga is rooted in allegations made over a decade ago that officials had manipulated the legal system to bankrupt the Yukos oil company and jail its boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky.