The Court of Justice of the EU annuls the inclusion of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman on the lists of persons subject to restrictive measures from February 2022 to March 2023.
Petr Aven also holds Latvian citizenship, and Mikhail Fridman holds Israeli citizenship.
Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman are Russian businessmen, who own Alfa Group, which includes Alfa Bank, one of the largest banks in Russia.
In 2022, Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman were sanctioned by the EU for their financial support of the Russian government and their involvement in actions and policies that threaten the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
According to the General Court, Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman do not demonstrate that they have supported actions or policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, or that they have provided material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers.
Petr Aven was Russian Minister of Economic Relations. He left his post in 1992, becoming an advisor to billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who was then President of Russia’s first private car dealership. By 1994, he had become the President of Alfa Bank Russia. This bank had been founded four years earlier in Moscow by Mikhail Fridman.
