Currency fall is not hardship is Russia

Several days ago the Supreme Court of Russia issues its first quarterly review of its most important decisions, which had been made recently (Russian text is available on the official web site). The eighth judgment was about whether a plummeting fall of Russian currency because of Crimea crisis could be considered as hardship and thus led to conversion of a loan contract. The Court unsurprisingly gave a negative answer, confirming general reluctance to use ‘rebus sic stantibus’ doctrine. However some remarks in the ruling seem to leave a door open to use this clause as a ground for contract modification…