Lawyers have achieved the abolition of two decisions on European sanctions against Aven and Friedman

This does not mean that the sanctions have been lifted - another decision remains in force

The European Court of General Jurisdiction satisfied the claims of the founders of Alfa-Group, Peter Aven and Mikhail Friedman , demanding to cancel the decisions of the EU authorities from 2022 to include businessmen in sanctions lists. They fell under European restrictions at the end of February 2022 - shortly after a full -scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The EU authorities substantiated sanctions against Friedman and Aven by the connections of businessmen in Russian power circles, including with Vladimir Putin. According to the Council of the European Union, Friedman and Aven also provided material or financial support to the Russian authorities, supported the actions and policies of the Russian Federation, which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.

In addition to the EU, at the beginning of the war, sanctions against Aven and Friedman were introduced by the United States, Great Britain and their allies. After that, the businessmen left the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank. They publicly declared sanctions unfair and complained about the related financial restrictions.

Businessmen appealed sanctions in court in May 2022. Among other things, both stated that the European Union Council made a mistake in assessing the facts when introducing restrictive measures against the plaintiff, and the evidence referred to the Council when making a decision did not deserve confidence.

On April 10, the EU court made a decision on the claims, taking the side of Russian businessmen and recognizing the justification of the EU Council to include Friedman and Aven in the sanctions lists. In particular, the court noted that the degree of proximity of businessmen to Putin and his environment does not prove that they supported, including financially, the actions and policies of the Russian authorities in relation to Ukraine.

Initially, Russian publications, including Medusa, said that the court decision cancel the EU sanctions against Aven and Friedman. But this is not so. The court’s decision was affected by the initial document of the EU Council of February 28, 2022, which against Aven and Friedman imposed sanctions, and the act on the extension of restrictions of September 14, 2022.

However, the court’s press release says that in March 2023 the European Union Council changed the grounds for extending sanctions against Aven and Friedman. In this document, they, among other things, were called "leading businessmen involved in the economy sector, providing a significant source of income to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine." Aven and Friedman dispute this decision of the EU authorities in separate claims . They are not yet considered.

Commenting on the decision of the EU court, Friedman said that he was “satisfied” with the current decision of the EU court. Aven did not comment on the court decision. European lawyers of businessmen called sanctions against their clients “counter -productive error”. They hope that the Decree of the European Union will be an “important signal”, which will be heard in the EU and beyond.

Speaking about the Decree of the European Court, the Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov called the sanctions against the Russian Federation “illegal, unfair, destructive” and “even in some ways shameful those bodies that received them.”

The associates of Alexei Navalny, who have been conducting the “List of Corruptions and Infigure of War” since the spring of 2022, criticized the decision of the EU court regarding Friedman and Aven. It should be noted that these statements were published before lawyers and journalists clarified that sanctions against businessmen continue to operate.

“Not only did Western politicians not have the will to introduce hundreds and thousands of people on the sanctions list on which the regime rests. This decision shows that there is a loophole that allows you to save a good life abroad, and not to be particularly opposed to Putin, ” said Navalny's team.

According to the director of the FBK Ivan Zhdanov, the decision of the EU court is “an enchanting disgrace and failure of the entire European sanctions policy”. The widow of Navalny Julia considered this decision “harmful”, capable of weakening the anti -war movement and helping Putin and continue to remain in power in Russia.

“I would like to ask European politicians:“ What has changed since you have brought Russian oligarchs to sanctions? ” Neither Friedman nor Aven made any statements against the war, no attempts to put an end to her - they simply hired very expensive lawyers and found good lobbyists. Anti -war -tuned Russians in Europe are faced with many problems, but for Russian oligarchs everything is easily solved by money, ”Navalny wrote.

Criticizing the decision of the court and the actions of the EU authorities was also made by the closest ally of Navalny Leonid Volkov. Earlier, he was among those who turned to the European authorities with a request to cancel sanctions against businessmen from Alfa Groups.

“There is no sense in what Europeans have done now. Friedman and Aven did not publicly say a word against the war, did not enter into conflict with Putin. The EU court simply gave them what he wanted on a saucer with a blue bucket. To what? What signal does the court send Putin, his friends, Russian oligarchs? - said Volkov. -The transparent mechanism for getting out of sanctions through a public break with Putin and active repentance has not been created. “It is better to hire more European lawyers and lobbyists,” the court says. This is all very, very bad. "

At the same time, the ally of Navalny noted that he did not doubt the quality of the work of the European Union, which compared the grounds from the decision of the EU Council on the introduction of restrictions with sanctions criteria. Questions, Wolkov wrote, arise for lawyers of the European Commission, who prepared a package of grounds for imposing sanctions. He cited the example of the EU court in the lawsuit of Friedman, in which the officials of the European Union referred to several outdated publications in the media, including the article on Friedman in The Daily Beast of 2018.

And how can we not recall that for these two years we [FBK] are running around them [European officials] and say: “We know how everything is arranged, who is connected with whom, who pays for whom, where Putin's money and wallets.” We say: "We are ready to write to the Evidence Pack. And these are the same!" Good ones that can stand in any court.

And what do we see all these two years? The Americans are in packs of all sorts of figures on the basis of investigations of the FBK and the work of FBK lawyers. The British are also packs. Europeans - no. They write with their left foot according to the notes in the Daily Beast, then they lose in court. Just an apotheosis of the helplessness of the bureaucracy.

The head of the FBK sanctions department, Alexander Pomazuev, having dismantled the decision of the European Court, noted that this decision is “the last-and use of the following warning that it is better to work.” “We (and many more) are ready to help. We literally run around and offer help, but the EU remains a black box, where letters and help offers disappear in a black hole, ”the lawyer wrote on the social network H. - of course, the abolition of old sanctions increases the chances that new ones will not resist or they will not extend them in the future. And this is all very alarming. Moreover, there is no confidence as new evidence (if they are collected) either. ”