Russian oligarchs are studying how billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman managed to escape the sanctions of the European Union, although few of them believe they could soon use these precedents to get their own restrictions lifted. This is the conclusion of an investigation published by Bloomberg.
After years of asset freezing and legal disputes related to various sanction regimes, many of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen do not yet see a quick way to escape their pariah status. Most of those questioned believe that the unexpected exceptions granted by the EU to Usmanov and Fridman were due to particular circumstances, specific to each case.
The conclusions come from a survey conducted by Bloomberg News among billionaires and people in their close entourage, who asked not to be identified, considering the sensitivity of the subject.
However, at least two Russian businessmen questioned stated that they intend to closely analyze the Fridman precedent, in the hope that it will create a precedent they can invoke in their own disputes.
Guide for Other Oligarchs
According to Sergei Glandin, a partner at the Moscow firm BGP Litigation, specializing in sanctions law, this case could become a kind of guide for other oligarchs in similar situations. Investment arbitration can be an effective method of putting pressure on governments, to prompt them to start negotiations or even to achieve removal from sanctions lists, he explained, adding that, “the higher the value of the lawsuit, the faster this process can unfold.”
Usmanov and Fridman have become two of the most well-known Russians to be removed, so far, from the EU sanctions regime, also being the first cases of this kind after a long period of lobbying from one of the key states of the European bloc. The evolution takes place while Russia is intensifying its aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities, against the backdrop of the approaching winter, and the war has already deeply entered its fifth year.
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