No sufficient evidence
EU court overturns sanctions against Russian oligarchs
April 10, 2024, 11:32 a.m
Two Russian oligarchs achieve success before the EU court in Luxembourg. According to the judges, there is no sufficient evidence for their inclusion in the group of those sanctioned. However, they will not be removed from the list.
The EU court has overturned the European Union’s sanctions decisions against Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven. The judges in Luxembourg decided that the Council of the EU did not provide sufficient evidence for inclusion in the sanctions list in its decisions between February 2022 and March 2023. The sanctions decisions were taken in response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
However, the decision does not mean that Fridman and Awen must be immediately removed from the EU sanctions list. On the one hand, the judgment can still be taken before the highest European court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ). On the other hand, the Council of the EU has already issued new sanctions decisions against the two men, who are not initially affected by the judgment.
Fridman and Awen are founders and important shareholders of the large financial group Alfa-Group. The EU imposed punitive measures against the billionaires shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. She froze funds and issued an entry ban. The US government also sanctioned them. Last year, however, several Russian opposition members spoke out in favor of removing Fridman and others from the sanctions list.
The EU justified the sanctions by saying that Fridman and Awen had financially supported Russian decision-makers and thereby undermined Ukraine’s territorial integrity. However, the judges now decided that these allegations were not sufficiently substantiated and that inclusion in the list was therefore unjustified. Even if it is possible to confirm that the two people are close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, this does not prove that they support measures that threaten Ukraine.
Sanctions have already been lifted several times
Almost three weeks ago, the EU court overturned the sanctions against ex-Formula 1 racing driver Nikita Masepin. The reason for this was that the family relationship with his father – a businessman with an alleged close friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin – was not enough to assume that he was linked to him by common interests.
A prominent verdict had already been made last year – and represented a clear defeat for the EU. The mother of the now deceased head of the Russian private army Wagner, Violetta Prigoschina, should not have been sanctioned, the judges decided at the time and argued in a similar way to Masepin : A family relationship is not enough to impose punitive measures against them. Meanwhile, many other people who were sanctioned have temporarily failed in their lawsuits, including the former owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramowitsch.
Because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU has so far imposed sanctions on almost 2,000 people and organizations. There are currently several dozen lawsuits against the punitive measures pending before the courts.