The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (SC) will decide which payments of a bankrupt citizen may be recognized as alimony for the maintenance of a minor child if no formal agreement on them has been concluded. The lower courts decided that in the absence of a written agreement the money is not considered alimony payments, but the bankrupt's ex-wife succeeded in transferring the case to the Supreme Court's Chamber for Commercial Disputes.

The Financial Manager of Vladimir Seregin contested the transfer of 17.86 million rubles in favor of the debtor's wife. Courts upheld the manager, stating that this amount could not be alimony, as there was no agreement on alimony between the spouses. The spouse complained to the Supreme Court, said that the lack of a written agreement is not a basis for releasing the debtor from the obligation to support the child. And the amount of these payments was not overstated. The case was referred to the Supreme Court's Chamber for Commercial Disputes.

Elena Gladysheva, Advocate, Managing Partner of RI-Consulting, on whether this is the first time such an issue has been referred to the Supreme Court Chamber for Commercial Disputes? Do such disputes and situations arise frequently in bankruptcy proceedings? Are alimony agreements widespread in our country and in what cases they are not concluded? What does the outcome of such a dispute depend on, what affects it and what should be taken into account by the courts? What court decision in this case would be reasonable?

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Fedresurs media has prepared statistics on bankruptcies in 2022. Specifically, it points to a 12.2% decrease in corporate bankruptcies and a 39% decrease in observational bankruptcies, with no surge after the moratorium on bankruptcies was lifted in the fall.

The rise in consumer bankruptcies also slowed, from 62% to 44.2%. Out-of-court bankruptcies are on the rise (52,6%).

Elena Gladysheva, Managing Partner of RI-Consulting, describes the bankruptcy results in 2022, according to the data provided by Fedresurs. The expert gives her evaluation of the effect of the bankruptcy moratorium, the consequences of sanctions and other negative factors of the last year.

"This statistics, in my opinion, should be viewed a little more retrospectively, rather than affecting only the period of 2022.

Taking into account the recent years, the 'point of no return', which entailed an increase in the number of bankruptcy procedures, was still 2020 - COVID-2019 and the period of self-isolation, as well as the inability to fulfill a significant amount of obligations caused by downtime and lack of funds led to bankruptcy of a significant number of companies which have not prepared sufficient reserves.
The expected outcome of the bankruptcy moratorium in 2020 was an increase in the number of procedures in 2021.

In 2021, during the period of restoration of stability, there was no significant increase of new companies replacing the bankrupt companies, i.e., "the strongest survived".

In 2022, taking into account the current realities, the bulk of those who have already passed the period of 2020 continue to work, the economy and financial plans of companies have relatively adapted to the changes taking place, and have become much more liable, taking into account the experience gained.
For the most part, bankruptcy now will be taken over by those companies whose activities are directly or indirectly related to the foreign sector - obviously, the reason for this is the sanctions imposed.

In addition, no sharp upsurge of bankruptcies of individuals is also due to the procedure of out-of-court bankruptcy of citizens, introduced by the legislator earlier, the popularity of which, on the contrary, is growing every month, which is also confirmed by the above statistics," - notes the advocate.