Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman wins appeal to be removed from EU sanctions

Mikhail Fridman, one of Britain’s richest Russians living in Britain, has won an appeal at a European Union court to remove him from the bloc’s sanctions.

The Luxembourg-based court found that there was not sufficient evidence that the billionaire, and his business colleague Petr Aven, had backed the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ruling is a significant blow to the stability of the EU’s sanctions crackdown on Moscow, which has targeted over 1,700 people and 400 entities for supporting the war.

Judges at the EU’s General Court ruled that while there is a “degree of proximity between Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman and Vladimir Putin or his entourage”, the bloc had failed to “demonstrate that [the men had] supported actions or policies” in the invasion of Ukraine.

“The General Court considers that none of the reasons set out in the initial acts is sufficiently substantiated and that the inclusion of Mr Aven and Mr Fridman on the lists at issue was therefore not justified,” the court said in a statement.

Their decision marked the most high-profile overturning of EU sanctions since Russian businessmen first had their measures lifted in September last year.

Mr Fridman, 59, who amassed his estimated £11 billion fortune in oil, telecoms banking, and retail, arrived in London nearly a decade ago.

He first moved to London in 2013 after selling his stake in oil giant TNK-BP to Russian state-controlled Rosneft in a $55 billion deal, one of the largest takeovers in Russia’s history.

The Ukrainian-born, Russian-Israeli tycoon is one of the co-founders of Russian conglomerate Alfa-Group and bought the historic Athlone House in Highgate, north London, for £65 million in 2016.

He was also sanctioned by Britain in March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting in his bank accounts being blocked.

Mr Fridman has previously denied being an oligarch, claiming to have no association with Putin, and denied being “pro-Kremlin”.

The businessman fled Britain to Moscow, via Israel, in October last year. It was reported that he had intended to stay in Israel but left the country as Hamas terrorists launched their attack.

Mr Fridman’s lawyers previously said that he does not intend to return to the UK.

At the same time, he had asked Britain’s High Court to allow him to pay £30,000 a month toward the upkeep of Athlone House, which contains his £44 million art collection.

He also wanted to spend money on non-security staff – including a driver and two handymen – and make another monthly payment of £1,850 for communications, IT, lighting and security for the 169-year-old property.

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation rejected the spending requests, arguing that payments for staff were unnecessary and would enable Mr Fridman to enjoy his pre-sanctions lifestyle.

The sanctioned businessman earlier this year won an employment lawsuit brought by his former housekeeper after a judge ruled that paying her would be a criminal offence.

The latest ruling by the EU’s General Court only applies to their inclusion on the bloc’s sanction list between February 2022 and March 2023.

An EU decision in January, however, renewed the sanctions regime until July 31 2024.

Both Mr Fridman and Mr Aven, both of whom are major shareholders of Alfa Group, which includes Russia’s top private bank Alfa Bank and its biggest food retailer X5 Retail Group, have lodged separate appeals against that action.

The EU’s sanction regime has frozen the finances and issued travel bans to people deemed to have “supported actions and policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.

Mr Fridman’s inclusion on the UK’s sanction list is unaffected by this ruling.