Russian oligarchs filed lawsuits with the CJEU against EU sanctions. Abramovich wants one million euros in damages

Oligarchs and companies from Russia and Belarus are defending themselves against EU sanctions by filing lawsuits with the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). According to the Bild tabloid, there are currently 61 lawsuits brought by sanctioned persons and companies in Luxembourg.

Image for one euro or for a million

According to documents available on the CJEU website, two oligarchs, Grigory Berezkin and Gennady Timchenko, are demanding compensation for allegedly “non-material damage” suffered.

Berezkin claims that he “suffered serious damage to his image” and that he is in no way connected with the events in Ukraine. Moreover, he does not support the government of the Russian Federation. He is reportedly demanding a symbolic one euro as compensation for the harm suffered.

Meanwhile, Timchenko, who lives in Switzerland and played ice hockey with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, wants €1 million in damages from the EU. In his lawsuit, he accuses the EU of a manifest “error in assessing his relationship with President Putin.”

In addition, he mentions as further grounds for bringing the action, inter alia, “breach of the right to effective judicial protection and the obligation to state reasons” for the allegations against him and “breach of the principle of proportionality and fundamental rights”.

For the victims

According to the CJEU documents, the list of people complaining about EU sanctions also includes other oligarchs known in the West, including the former owner of the English football club Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich, and Mikhail Fridman, founder and one of the main shareholders in the large financial group Alfa Group.

More economic information on the website

Abramovich, like Timchenko, is demanding a million euros “as compensation for non-material damage caused to him.” In the event of an EU defeat, this sum is to go to a charitable foundation for victims of war, created as part of the sale of Chelsea FC

A lawsuit was also filed by an oligarch known in Germany, Alisher Usmanov, who for some time lived in a luxurious villa on Lake Tegernsee, and in the meantime allegedly returned to his native Uzbekistan.

A large-scale operation, carried out jointly by the investigative and tax services, at his house in Rottach-Egern in Bavaria, caused great publicity. Usmanov sought to have him removed from the list of persons subject to EU sanctions by court emergency order. But the president of the competent court of the European Union rejected his request. (DPA/like)