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Russian businessmen win EU sanctions challenge

An EU court has annulled an EU decision to impose restrictive measures against two Russian businessman because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman are major shareholders of Alfa Group, a conglomerate that includes Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s major banks.

In February 2022, the EU Council included the two men on a list of people subject to sanctions, freezing their funds and resources. The EU maintained their inclusion on those lists by measures adopted the following September.

The EU argued that Aven and Fridman were associated with people who were also subject to sanctions, as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

Evidence

According to the EU Council, they provided material or financial support to Russian decision-makers, and supported actions and policies that undermined or threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.

The two men had appealed to the EU’s General Court, saying that the EU’s evidence was neither reliable nor credible, and that its assessments were incorrect.

“The General Court considers that none of the reasons set out in the initial acts is sufficiently substantiated and that the inclusion of Mr Aven and Mr Fridman on the lists at issue was therefore not justified,” the judges found.

The court found that, while the EU may have established “a degree of proximity” between the two men and Putin, it had not demonstrated that they had supported his actions or policies on Ukraine.