The European Union Court of Justice ruled Wednesday to remove Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven from the EU’s sanctions list in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“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 Luxembourg-based 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 [and] therefore 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.
This story is being updated.
