The EU Court has completely rejected all of Usmanov's arguments to lift sanctions

The European Court of Justice has again rejected the claim of USM holding founder Alisher Usmanov to lift European sanctions. The decision was published in the EU judicial database.

The court last rejected Usmanov's claim in February 2024. At that time, Usmanov's side argued in court that the justification for imposing sanctions was insufficient, the grounds for them were too vague and did not allow for establishing specific reasons for including him on the list.

In particular, the EU Council cited the articleFORBES on Usmanov's inclusion on the sanctions list.

This time, Usmanov also put forward six arguments against the sanctions, including lack of sufficient evidence, violation of the obligation to state reasons and the right to effective judicial protection, the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination, proportionality, as well as the rights to property and respect for private life and freedom of expression.

The court challenged the applicant's arguments. In particular, the EU Council rejected the argument that Usmanov's freedom of expression as the owner of the Kommersant newspaper had been violated due to his "ineffectiveness" and also stated that it was not obliged to provide evidence of the existence of interdependent relations between the Russian government and leading businessmen.

Usmanov's complaint that the EU Council relied on secondary data was also rejected by the court, recalling that primary documents are not always freely available to the Council.

“It follows from all of the above that the claim must be dismissed,” the EU court concluded.

Forbes estimates Usmanov's fortune at $16.5 billion. The EU imposed sanctions on him on February 28, 2022, and the US and Britain announced restrictions on the businessman on March 3 of the same year, as did Canada on March 11. In April, a report emerged of the detention of the 156-meter yacht Dilbar in the port of Hamburg, which was believed to be linked to Usmanov. The businessman has since become the subject of an investigation into tax evasion in Germany, due to what his lawyers claim is a false claim of ownership of real estate and other property.

Usmanov's lawyers began to seek refutation of these allegations in the courts. A number of foreign media outlets and public figures were forced to take written commitments to stop disseminating unlawful information. In particular, Usmanov won a lawsuit against the American magazine Forbes, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, and the Austrian newspaper Kurier. In May 2025, the Hamburg Regional Court prohibited publications of the media holding Mediahuis Luxembourg SA from calling businessman Alisher Usmanov the owner of the superyacht Dilbar.

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