The court rejected VEB's claim seeking the lifting of European restrictions.

Shuvalov and Usmanov have been under sanctions for almost two years. Both tried to challenge the decision to introduce them on the basis of insufficient motivation, but the COURT sided with the EU Council Alisher Usmanov

The EU Court rejected the claims of the founder of the USM holding Alisher Usmanov and VEB.RF (the state corporation challenged the sanctions against itself and its leader Igor Shuvalov) for the abolition of European sanctions. The corresponding decisions are published in the judicial database. Usmanov and Shuvalov came under sanctions from Brussels in February 2022.

The plaintiffs demanded that the restrictions imposed on them be lifted and that the EU pay the costs of the trial. However, the court rejected these claims.

Usmanov’s side argued in court that the motivation for imposing sanctions was insufficient, the grounds for them were too vague and did not allow one to establish specific reasons for including him on the list.

In particular, the EU Council cited a FORBES article when adding Usmanov to the sanctions list. In January, the businessman won a lawsuit against the publication: he was prohibited from disseminating statements that Usmanov was a “figurehead” for Vladimir Putin and “solved his business problems.” “It is completely unacceptable for the EU Council to copy such articles verbatim to justify sanctions without checking their accuracy. This complete institutional failure, which is not the exception but rather the rule, became the starting point for the witch hunt against Mr. Usmanov. it turns out that the EU Council is justifying the sanctions with fake news, the dissemination of which is prohibited by the court,” Usmanov’s lawyer Joachim Nikolaus Steinhöfel said at the time.

In August 2023, the businessman lost in court to the Austrian newspaper Kurier, which wrote that Putin called Usmanov “one of his favorite oligarchs.”

Usmanov said that the sanctions caused enormous damage to his reputation and that he could not be considered an oligarch, since he did not participate in privatization and was not the recipient of “dubious assistance from the state.”

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Shuvalov’s side appealed to the fact that the motivation for his inclusion in the sanctions list was based on irrelevant facts.

RBC sent a request to VEB.RF. Usmanov's representative declined to comment.