An opinion of the Advocate General has emerged in a dispute between Latvia and two Russian billionaires, Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman, at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The Court of Justice of the European Union is currently considering an appeal from Latvia in the cases C-440/24 P and C-451/25 P against the two billionaires. The case began when the EU Court lifted the sanctions on the two Russians in April 2024. This decision did not affect the overall situation, as the sanctions were only lifted for a period from February 2022 to March 2023. After this, Latvia appealed against the court decision, and on October 30 the court published an opinion by General Counsel Andrea Biondi.
The Advocate General, having considered the arguments of the parties, in his opinion proposed to the Court to make the following decision:
- Reject the appeal;
- The Republic of Latvia to pay the legal costs of these combined cases;
- The Republic of Estonia and the Republic of Lithuania (who supported Latvia — SL) must pay their own expenses.
In Biondi’s opinion, there are several interesting conclusions. For example, he says that:
“The position of the Republic of Latvia is as follows: since Mr. Aven and Mr. Fridman are Russian oligarchs, they could achieve this level of economic success only by supporting or receiving support from – and therefore taking advantage of – the Russian regime in general and Mr. Putin in particular.”
“It follows from this evidence that Mr. Putin’s eldest daughter led a charity project organized by the research center where she was a doctoral student aimed at helping sick children. This project was funded by Alfa-Bank. The Court correctly determined that these elements were insufficient to establish the material or financial support or advantage that Mr. Aven had received in the context of his relationship with Mr. Putin.”
“The Court was right to conclude that certain reasons may have allowed Mr. Aven and Mr. Friedman to establish a close relationship with responsible Russian decision makers … but it failed to prove that they had used the services of these Russian decision makers.”
Mikhail Fridman / Photo: kremlin.ruThere are several advocates general in the EU court of justice who analyze the arguments of the parties. After their opinions, the court makes a decision, but the opinion of an advocate general is not binding on the court.
In addition to his Russian citizenship, Peter Aven also has a Latvian passport, and Mikhail Fridman also has an Israeli passport. Forbes estimates Peter Aven’s fortune at $4.7 billion and Mikhail Fridmans at $14.9 billion.
