Two Russian billionaires will be able to conduct their businesses without any harassment or hindrances accruing from sanctions previously imposed on them by the European Union.
Between 2022 and 2023, as part of retaliation against Russia’s special Military operation in Ukraine, the European Union slapped sanctions against Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven.
“The General Court upholds the requests of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman and annuls both the initial acts and the acts maintaining the lists of restrictive measures for the period from Feb. 28, 2022, to March 15, 2023,” the court said in a statement.
The court said the inclusion of Fridman, the co-founder of the investment conglomerate Alfa Group, and Aven, who headed Alfa until March 2022, was not “sufficiently substantiated, therefore was not justified.”
Fridman was born in Soviet Ukraine, made his fortune in Russia and has lived in London since 2015. He has long disputed allegations that he is close to the Russian authorities.
Aven also disputes claims that he is close to President Vladimir Putin. He has reportedly been living abroad since Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Fridman and Aven’s assets, which are also subject to U.S. and British sanctions, were frozen at the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Fridman, 59, holds Russian and Israeli citizenship while Aven, 69, holds Russian and Latvian citizenship.
