Billionaires Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, against whom Brussels imposed personal sanctions, filed lawsuits against the Council of Europe in the European Court of General Jurisdiction, follows from the file of the court. Aven filed an application to initiate proceedings on May 23, Fridman's application was registered on May 24.

Aven and Fridman came under personal EU sanctions imposed in response to the “military special operation” * in Ukraine. A publication in the official journal of the EU on the sanctions claimed that Aven "benefited from his connections in power" and Friedman "managed to develop strong ties with the administration of Vladimir Putin."

Immediately after that, the billionaires promised to challenge the imposition of EU sanctions against them. “Friedman and Aven will challenge the false and unfounded basis for imposing these sanctions—strongly and with all the means at their disposal—to reverse the unwarranted and unnecessary damage to the livelihoods and prosperity of their many employees, customers, partners, and stakeholders, as well as businesses, which they and their partners have been creating for the past 25 years, ”Reuters reported, citing a statement by billionaires.

At the end of April, billionaire Alisher Usmanov filed a lawsuit against the Council of the EU in the European Court of General Jurisdiction, personal sanctions against him were also introduced by Brussels on February 28.

In May, similar lawsuits were filed by the state corporation VEB.RF and its head Igor Shuvalov. The European Court of General Jurisdiction also registered lawsuits by Magnit shareholder Alexander Vinokurov (son-in-law of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov), businessmen Dmitry Pumpyansky (shareholder of TMK and the Sinara group), Vadim Moshkovich (shareholder of Rusagro), Igor Kesaev (shareholder of GK "Mercury") and Andrey Melnichenko (shareholder of EuroChem), Dmitry Mazepin (co-owner of Uralchem, Uralkali, Togliattiazot).