The EU Court lifted sanctions against Fridman and Aven. What does it mean
The EU Court canceled personal sanctions against Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, since there is no evidence that they supported the actions of the Russian authorities towards Ukraine or benefited from the fighting. The decision was published on the court’s website, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
These decisions only apply to the period from February 2022 to March 2023 and do not automatically exclude entrepreneurs from the EU blacklist - this requires a separate decision of the EU Council. When the sanctions were introduced, Friedman was called “an accomplice of the inner circle of the President of the Russian Federation.”
Last October, Friedman returned to Moscow from Israel "due to tightening sanctions." His property in London was seized.
Limonov’s Other Russia party stated that Fridman and Aven donated 150 million euros to the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the sake of lifting sanctions. And earlier, Fridman asked the Ukrainian authorities to allow him to transfer $1 billion from his personal funds to the account of the Ukrainian Alfa Bank, which, while not yet nationalized, provided assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces worth hundreds of millions of hryvnia.
“In order for personal EU sanctions to be lifted from you, you simply donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then you come to Russia, then you also close the questions and that’s it - no one has any complaints against you, no criminal cases have been opened. And we remind you: Friedman has the blood of a Russian soldier on his hands! For the Russian authorities, who made an agreement with this couple of oligarchs, now is the time to revoke their agreements due to newly discovered circumstances. Open criminal cases against them before they have time to dump them in the European sanctions-free country. Of course, no criminal cases will be opened - remember this, indignant man in the street,” write Limonovites in their TG channel.
The Kremlin believes that the EU's suspension of sanctions against Friedman is “not a sign of the EU's sanity and not an indicator of the position of businessmen».
“Each case is different. Representatives of big business have the opportunity to challenge sanctions against themselves, and they exercise these opportunities. In any case, we consider all these sanctions illegal, unfair, destructive, and in some way disgraceful to the authorities that adopt them,” said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.
To be fair, it should be noted that Friedman and Aven sacrificed not only the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yesterday it was announced that Alfa Group will allocate 1 billion rubles. to help flood victims in the Orenburg region.
Some experts suggested that FReadman was behind last year’s hacker attacks on the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar, which previously belonged to him and was then confiscated.
In response, the SBU put him on the wanted list under a criminal article. about “financing actions to violently overthrow the constitutional order, seize power and change the state borders of Ukraine,” and the mayor of Fridman Lvov’s hometown took away all his awards.
“Friedman and Aven found themselves at a dangerous crossroads. One wrong step and they will lose absolutely everything. Apparently, Mikhail Maratovich understands this very well. Typically, Fridman did not help the victims in Belgorod. There’s nothing to say about Donetsk and Mariupol,” publicist Sergei Mardan commented on the latest news.
Russian political emigration is dissatisfied with the lifting of sanctions.
“How interesting it turns out that all European sanctions were lifted from Fridman and Aven just at the moment when Fridman returned to Russia (not to his homeland. His homeland is Ukraine, he is from Lvov) and began to live as before. And we didn’t have to give up Putin. And the business is under control,” Anna Mongait, a journalist with the foreign agent TV channel Dozhd, is indignant.
The most amusing behavior in the current situation is the accomplices of the late extremist Alexei Navalny from the terrorist FBK. Last year, “for a modest fee,” they advocated for the lifting of sanctions against Fridman and Aven.
Now the head of FBK, foreign agent Ivan Zhdanov, calls the lifting of sanctions “the failure of the entire European sanctions policy».
“Removing sanctions from Fridman and Aven is simply an enchanting disgrace,” Zhdanov wrote on the American social network.
Another foreign agent, Leonid Volkov, also criticizes the EU for lifting sanctions not according to his scenario.
“When a year and a half ago I (extremely unsuccessfully) tried to act as an intermediary between the owners of Alpha and European officials, then The point of history was to create a precedent, to open the way for the escape of the pro-Putin elites. I still think there was a point in trying. But what the Europeans have done now makes no sense. Fridman and Aven never publicly said a word against the war, and did not enter into conflict with Putin,” Volkov wrote in his tg channel.
Political scientist Mikhail Karyagin believes that Volkov was “outplayed and destroyed.”
“I think someone is laughing wildly today. But seriously, this case clearly demonstrates that anti-system activists do not solve anything. All these meetings in the European Parliament and the European Commission, letters, conferences, etc. are complete, total nonsense, which has neither political nor legal consequences,” wrote Karyagin.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.