EU court lifts sanctions against Russian oligarchs Aven and Friedman
Kyiv • UNN
The EU Court of Justice has lifted sanctions against Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, satisfying their lawsuit and lifting the restrictive measures imposed on them after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The European Union Court of Justice has lifted sanctions against Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, thus satisfying their claim. UNN reports this with reference to the court's press service.
"The Court of Justice of the European Union has canceled the inclusion of Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman in the lists of persons subject to restrictive measures from February 2022 to March 2023," the statement said.
It is noted that the EU Council may have grounds to proceed from the existence of a certain degree of closeness between Peter Aven and Mikhail Friedman and Vladimir Putin or his entourage. However, these grounds do not provide a basis to prove that Friedman and Aven "supported actions or policies that compromised or threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, or that they provided material or financial support to or benefited from the actions of Russian persons responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilization of Ukraine."
"The court of first instance satisfied the claims of Aven and Friedman and canceled both the initial measures and the measures supporting them in the lists of restrictive measures for the period from February 28, 2022 to March 15, 2023," the court said in a statement.
Recall
Friedman and Aven were members of the supervisory board of Alfa Group, one of the largest financial and investment conglomerates in Russia. They came under sanctions after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After that, the oligarchs withdrew from the bank's supervisory structures.
