Court cancels EU personal sanctions against Russian oligarchs Fridman and Aven, but sanctions still in action

The European Union court has satisfied the lawsuit of the shareholders of Alfa-Bank Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman to annul their inclusion on the EU sanctions list.

Source: Court of Justice of the European Union

Quote: "The General Court annuls the inclusion of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman on the lists of persons subject to restrictive measures," the text reads.

The court's decision reads that the grounds on which the businessmen were included on the lists were not sufficiently justified, and the Council of the EU has not provided additional evidence.

"The General Court upholds the requests of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman. 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. As regards the maintaining acts, the General Court holds that the Council adduced no additional evidence compared to that on which it had relied in the initial acts.

According to the General Court, although the grounds put forward by the Council may be such as to establish, as the case may be, a degree of proximity between Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman and Vladimir Putin or his entourage, they do not demonstrate that they have supported actions or policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, or that they have provided material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilisation of Ukraine, or that they have benefited from those decision-makers," the statement said. 

An appeal can be brought before the Court within 2 months and 10 days from the date of notification of the decision.

Update: Radio Liberty journalist Rikard Jozwiak explained that this decision only applies to the blacklist from February 2022 to March 2023.

"So they remain under sanctions as the list was renewed earlier this year, but [this is a] bad omen," he wrote on X.

As European Pravda explains, Aven and Fridman contested the decision from 2022. But it has already ceased to be valid – it was replaced by the sanctions decision of 2023, and then 2024.

"Although legally, the EU decision does not affect the current restrictions on the oligarchs, it creates political problems for the continuation of sanctions for the next period. In particular, up to 2022, after similar decisions of the European Court, the European Union was forced to stop renewing sanctions against most of Yanukovych's [former pro-Russian president of Ukraine – ed.] associates, who were included in the sanctions list in 2014," the message says.

Background:

• Fridman and Aven are founders and shareholders of the Russian Alfa-Bank. After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, they left Russia, but nevertheless found themselves under sanctions from the EU and the UK.
• In August 2023, they were also included in the US sanctions list. Last spring, it became known that Fridman and Aven decided to sell their shares in Alfa-Bank – primarily to try to lift the sanctions. At that time, a source in the Financial Times newspaper said that they were ready to do anything to do this.

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