The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has lifted sanctions of two of Russia’s richest men, Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman of Alfa Group, RBC business portal reports citing the documents published on the court's website on April 10.
Forbes estimates Aven and Fridman's fortunes at $4.3bn and $13.1bn respectively. They are two of Russia’s best known oligarchs that rose to prominence in the 1990s during the chaotic Yeltsin-era when the first generations of super-rich emerged.
“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 [EU] restrictive measures for the period from 28 February 2022 to 15 March 2023,” the document reads.
The court believes that “although the grounds put forward by the [European] Council may be such as to establish, as the case may be, a degree of proximity between Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman and Vladimir Putin or his entourage, they do not demonstrate that they have supported actions or policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, or that they have provided material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilisation of Ukraine, or that they have benefited from those decision-makers.”
To remind, in March 2023, the EU Council has redacted the grounds for sanctioning Aven and Fridman, labelling them as 'leading entrepreneurs involved in sectors of the economy providing a substantial source of income to the government of the Russian Federation'.
The sanctions under this criterion continue to be challenged by Aven and Fridman in separate lawsuit proceedings, with no judgement on these complaints yet. The two businessmen still formally remain on the EU sanctions list.
Fridman commented to RBC that he was satisfied with the EU court's decision to lift sanctions against him. 'We are satisfied with this decision,' he said.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, in 2022 some 20 Russian billionaires threatened to contest sanctions imposed on them by the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This includes the family members of metals and tech tycoon Alisher Usmanov, Dmitry Konov, the former CEO of petrochemicals manufacturer Sibur, who is also appealing against the sanctions against him, industrialist and former EuroChem director Andrey Melnichenko, and others.
Fridman and Aven join a slowly growing list of oligarchs that have been removed from the sanctions list. In July the UK government lifted its sanctions on exiled Russian banker Oleg Tinkov, who published a sharp foul-mouthed critique of the 'insane war' in Ukraine on his social media, but then was forced to sell his TCS banking group to Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin.
bne IntelliNews already suggested that Tinkov being cleared of sanctions could pave the way for separating Russia’s richest into “good” and “bad” oligarchs by the West.
In March 2024, the EU has lifted sanctions on Arkady Volozh, the founder of Russian internet giant Yandex. The lawyers of Volozh had reportedly formally requested for the EU sanctions on him to be lifted back in August 2023.
Their arguments are understood to have gained more traction after Volozh publicly condemned Russia’s “barbaric war” full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. However, the sanctions were not lifted until the completion of Volozh's exit from Yandex in the largest corporate exit from the country since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
As closely followed by bne IntelliNews, Fridman and Aven's Alfa Group has also exited most of its Russian assets. Although neither have explicitly condemned the war in Ukraine, they have offered mild criticism calling for an end to the hostilities.
Veon (47.9% owned by LetterOne, an investment vehicle of Alfa Group’s main shareholders Fridman, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev) in the end of 2023 completed the exit from its anchor asset Russian mobile major VimpelCom through a management buyout (MBO) in a cashless deal.
Alfa Group also sold another major asset in Russia – one of the largest private banks Alfa Bank – for RUB178bn ($2.3bn) to long-time partner Andrei Kosogov. Apart from Alfa Bank and VimpelCom, another Alfa’s major asset in Russia is the country’s largest offline food retailer X5 Group, owned by Luxembourg-based CTF Holdings.
So far, no reports suggested that X5 could be up for sale, but the company redomiciled to Russia and was included in the state list of economically important organisations (EEO).
Alfa Group was part of a consortium of Russian oligarchs AAR (Alfa Access Renova) that held a major share in the Russo-British oil joint venture TNK-BP that they sold to state-owned oil major Rosneft in March 2013 in a $55bn deal. Fridman took his share of the proceeds and set up LetterOne (aka L1) in London. Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine this investment vehicle has been trying to get back into the oil business internationally, as well as making other profitable investments.
Fridman grew to prominence in the 1990s after his Alfa Group made him a billionaire. After getting his start as a window cleaner in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union he went on to found a business empire that includes Alfa Bank, the highly successful X5 retail and supermarket group and numerous other businesses.
