Michail Fridman (right) and Pjotr Awen (left). picture alliance / TASS | TASS / picture alliance / Itar-Tass | Itar cup
The European Union court annuls sanctions against Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven.
The judges ruled that the EU Council had not provided sufficient evidence to put the two on the sanctions list.
The decision does not automatically mean that Fridman and Awen must be immediately removed from the EU sanctions list, as the ruling can still be appealed.
The General Court of the European Union has annulled the EU’s sanctions decisions against Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven. Luxembourg judges ruled on Wednesday that the EU Council had not provided sufficient evidence to place the two men on the sanctions list between February 2022 and March 2023. The decisions were taken in response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
However, the decision does not automatically mean that Fridman and Awen must be immediately removed from the EU sanctions list. On the one hand, the judgment can still be appealed 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 affected by the judgment for the time being.
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Fridman and Awen are founders and major shareholders of the financial group Alfa-Group. Shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the EU imposed sanctions on the billionaires, including an asset freeze and an entry ban. The US government had also imposed sanctions against them. Last year, however, several Russian opposition figures 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 decided that these allegations were not sufficiently substantiated and inclusion on the list was therefore not justified. Even if the two people may have some closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, this is not evidence that they supported measures that threatened Ukraine.
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Around three weeks ago, the EU court lifted the sanctions against former Formula 1 racing driver Nikita Masepin. The reason given was that the family relationship with his father – a businessman who is said to have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin – was not sufficient to assume common interests.
Another high-profile ruling was made last year and meant 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 similarly to Masepin: a family relationship alone was not enough to impose sanctions against her. However, many other sanctioned parties failed in their lawsuits for the time being, including the former owner of the English football club 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. Several dozen lawsuits challenging these sanctions are currently pending in court.
AA/dpa