The EU court abolished personal sanctions against Mikhail Friedman and Peter Aven

The EU court abolished personal sanctions against Russian entrepreneurs Mikhail Friedman and Peter Aven. Thus, the EU court granted the lawsuit of businessmen.

The court stated that with the introduction of sanctions of entrepreneurs, they considered close to Vladimir Putin - they allegedly provided financial support to Russian officials and supported actions against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. As a result, the court considered these arguments not proven enough.

At the same time, as the project “We can explain” the project notes , the sanctions against businessmen will remain in force, because the court canceled only decisions on the sanctions of 2022:

“The claims of Friedman and Aven were filed against the EU Council in May 2022 and concerned the decision to include them in the sanctions list for the period from February 2022 to March 2023. The court took the side of the plaintiffs and ruled that they should not be included in the list precisely during this period.

However, in March 2023, the EU Council made a second decision to include Friedman and Aven in the EU sanctions list. Today's court decision does not apply to this list (billionaires are disputing and this decision). ”

In March 2023, the Corruption Fund included Friedman in the list of "corrupt and warfarers of war." FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov wrote that this decision was due to the fact that he and other persons indicated on the list could not declare their position and condemn the war in a year.

As it became known before that, the former chairman of the board of the FBC Leonid Volkov sent a letter to the office of the EU Supreme EU for foreign affairs and security policy, in which he proposed to prescribe clear criteria for lifting sanctions. In it, he proposed to exclude from the European sanctions list (including) Aven and Friedman, since they do not support the Kremlin’s course and fell into the list unfairly.

After this information became public, Volkov called this letter to his big political mistake and left the post of chairman of the FBK. Instead, Maria singers was appointed to this position.