Reason can sometimes prevail in the through-the-looking-glass world of Russian justice. Investors will draw some comfort from the withdrawal of a lawsuit by Russia’s federal customs service that sought $22.5bn of damages from Bank of New York Mellon. The suit was linked to a decade-old case, already resolved in the US, involving $7bn of illegal transfers out of Russia. Following the deal between Norway’s Telenor and Russia’s Alfa Group, it removes the last of two disputes whose odour had hung over Russia’s investment environment like rotting fish.

The faintly surreal case saw Russian customs employ Miami lawyers, better known for representing air crash victims, to apply US anti-racketeering statutes in a Moscow court. It was a test of President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledges to bolster the Russian judiciary’s independence, and whether a western company could get a fair hearing against a state body. In spite of BoNY’s insistence that the suit was without merit and any judgment unenforceable, the potential damages raised questions about whether it needed a reserve against a loss.