The Court of Justice of the European Union has decided to lift EU sanctions against Farkhad Akhmedov, who was sanctioned in April 2022.
The EU imposed sanctions based on the belief that he is a Russian businessman involved in the energy sector and Russian politics. He founded Tansley Trading and became a shareholder in Nort Gas, as well as the chairman of Bechtel Energy, companies that supply equipment to Russian energy producers and are important to the Russian government.
The evidence that the EU uses to impose sanctions is interesting. Among them are: an excerpt from the Wikipedia website, a screenshot from the Forbes magazine website, an extract from the Rumafia.net website and a screenshot from The Times newspaper.
Challenging the sanctions, Farkhad Akhmedov argued that the EU cannot refer to facts relating to economic activity which began more than ten years ago and therefore has nothing to do with current events in Ukraine. Secondly, the businessman challenged his “proximity to the Kremlin.”
He claimed that he was added to the list drawn up by the United States Department of the Treasury was because he has a net worth of 1 billion United States dollars (USD) (approximately EUR 900 million) or more and because there were disputes with Gazprom which proved that he did not acquire his fortune through the Russian government.
As a result, on May 29th, 2020 the court decided to remove sanctions.
Farkhad Akhmedov has lived in the UK since 1987. In the same year, he received his first capital trading licenses on the London Mercantile Exchange and created the company Tansley Trading, which supplies equipment to Soviet gas companies.
