The Constitutional Court upheld a Russian fined due to US

The Constitutional COURT of RUSSIA decided to review the court decisions against the Russian Nikolai Kuznetsov, who was fined more than 30 million rubles. The fine was charged due to the claims of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) to the return to Russia of his funds frozen in the United States due to sanctions against a Russian bank.

Following the consideration of Kuznetsov’s complaint, the court indicated that “the activities of public authorities should not aggravate the legal and factual situation of Russian citizens and organizations affected by the relevant sanctions.” The court noted that the most acceptable solution on the part of the authorities is “assistance to such persons as having fallen into a difficult situation due to, in fact, unlawful circumstances.”

The court pointed out that if, due to sanctions, a foreign exchange transaction formally ceased to comply with foreign exchange legislation, then this is not a reason to consider the actions of a citizen to restore ownership of his property illegal.

force majeure circumstances

Kuznetsov in June 2014 transferred $616,000 from his Transcapitalbank account to his father's Mosoblbank account. Since the transaction took place in dollars, it was carried out through a correspondent account in an American bank, a division of Standard Chartered. However, the money did not reach the addressee - the foreign bank blocked the funds, since Mosoblbank was subject to US sanctions as belonging to the SMP Bank of the Rotenberg brothers.