EU sanctions have also hit Russian billionaires, who have long since said goodbye to their homeland. Yuri Schefler who once received the nickname “Vodka King” in the media, has apparently become convinced.
On November 17th, the journal of the European Union reported on an appeal filed by the businessman on October 2nd. The appeal was against the ruling of the General Jurisdiction Court in the case T-430/24, Schefler v. Council of the EU in July.
Yuri Schefler acquired rights to the brands Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodkas in the 1990’s and left Russia in 2002. In 2024, he and the companies under his control were recognized by Russian officials as extremist organizations for funding the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and Russian vodka factories were seized.
Scheflerr has triple citizenship: Russia, Great Britain and Israel. The court documents say that the businessman owns a company with headquarters in Luxembourg, which owns the Gulfstream G650 aircraft registered in Luxembourg. In addition, the businessman was planning to purchase a new aircraft.
However, in 2023 the European Union imposed sanctions according to which any aircraft owned, chartered, or otherwise controlled by a Russian individual, legal entity, organization, or body is prohibited from landing on the territory of the European Union, taking off from it, or flying over it. Thus, the business man had problems with flights.
In court, Schefler stated that he had unsuccessfully tried to renounce Russian citizenship twice and had not had a Russian passport for more than 20 years. In addition, the businessman received the status of political refugee in Switzerland.
However, the court of first instance refused the businessman’s request, considering that decisions on such bans should be made on a case-by-case basis by EU member states.
