The General Court of the European Union this Wednesday annulled the restrictive measures that the community bloc had applied to the mother of the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, as the kinship relationship alone does not justify its inclusion on the sanctions list.
According to the verdict, published this Wednesday, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, is “responsible for actions that endangered the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, the bond between Violeta Prigozhina and her son, which led to established at the time of adopting restrictive measures, it is based solely on their family relationship and is therefore not sufficient to justify their inclusion on the lists of persons and entities subject to EU sanctions.
The Court notes that “Following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in March 2014 and Russia’s destabilizing actions in eastern Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted on 17 March 2014 a series of restrictive measures accepted”. which would be intensified from February 2022, with the adoption of a further dozen sanctions packages.
These measures included, among other things: “restrictions to prevent the entry or transit through the territory of the Member States of certain persons responsible, inter alia, for actions or policies endangering or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine” and the freezing of its assets and economic resources, applying “similar sanctions to persons, entities or bodies associated with them”.
The judgment then recalls that “since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine in February 2022, the Council, in its decisions of February 23, 2022, in particular members of the government, banks, businessmen and members of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation” and “added in this context the name of Violetta Prigozhina, mother of Yevgeniy Prigozhin”.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin is responsible for the deployment of Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine and “benefited from large public contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense in the wake of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and the occupation of eastern Ukraine by Russia supported separatists”.
According to the EU Council, Violetta Prigozhina owns Concord Management and Consulting LLC, which belongs to the Concord group, founded and owned until 2019 by her son, and also owns other companies associated with the latter, for which “she has taken actions and supported policies that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.
The target contested and asked the General Court to annul the acts in the part where they related to her, and the Court granted her request in Wednesday’s verdict, noting in particular that Violetta Prigozhina “is no longer the owner of Concord Management and Consulting since 2017, even though he had shares in it”.
Moreover, the Council has not established that the applicant owned other companies related to her son when the contested acts were adopted.
Consequently, the relationship between the two persons established when the contested acts were adopted and on which the Council relied on that date is based solely on their family relationship, which, taking into account the criterion applied by the Council in the present case, is the explanation of the reasons for the contested acts and the case-law of the Court of Justice are not sufficient to justify their inclusion in the contested lists”, the judgment reads.
Source: DN
