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The EU’s highest court has ruled that sanctions against a Russian tech executive should be lifted, the first time it has revoked measures against a businessman sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Alexander Shulgin, former chief executive of ecommerce platform Ozon, had joined dozens of other members of Russia’s elite in appealing against the sanctions at the European Court of Justice.
But while at least six such appeals were formally rejected on Wednesday, the court made a rare exception in the case of Shulgin.
The sanctions against him will not be lifted immediately and the European Council, which first imposed the measures, could appeal or impose fresh sanctions as early as next week, when the measures are up for renewal.
However, it marks a first for the court, which had previously only upheld the appeals of relatives of sanctioned members of the elite, such as the mother of Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“I am happy to confirm that the EU General Court has annulled Mr Shulgin’s listing,” Thierry Bontinck, a lawyer representing the businessman, told the Financial Times.
“This is the first positive decision in the EU Court of Justice regarding a representative of Russian business,” said Anastasia Konstantinova, partner and head of the sanctions practice at law firm Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners. “We are happy that justice has prevailed and we were able to take part in restoring the good name of our client.”
Court filings published on Wednesday showed Shulgin was sanctioned for participating in a meeting of business leaders and oligarchs called by President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Shulgin argued in his appeal that this alone was not sufficient evidence. The court agreed.
“As the applicant essentially maintains, the Council cannot infer, from the sole fact that he participated in a meeting . . . that he could possibly have been held to be responsible for actions or policies undermining or threatening stability in Ukraine,” the ruling said, also citing other arguments.
Several other oligarchs lost their appeals against EU sanctions, including business tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky and Gennady Timchenko, a longtime Putin associate.
Pumpyansky, founder of TMK, a leading producer of pipes for the oil and gas industry, was sanctioned last year by the EU, US, UK and Switzerland. His appeal was rejected on Wednesday. The court said in a statement that “including him on the restrictive measures list is well founded since he can be classified as a leading businessperson involved in . . . sectors which provide a substantial source of revenue to the Russian government.”
The court also turned down an appeal by Timchenko, court documents showed. Timchenko is a longtime friend of Putin and a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, which was already under EU and UK sanctions before the start of Russia’s invasion.
An appeal by Tigran Khudaverdyan was also turned down, court filings showed. The businessman was the deputy chief executive of Yandex when he was sanctioned for attending the oligarchs’ roundtable with Putin on the first day of the invasion. He later resigned.
Mikhail Gutseriev, who has potash assets in Belarus among other businesses, also lost his appeal against sanctions imposed for his proximity to Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Additional reporting by Anastasia Stognei
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