As of January 2024, more than 1950 Russian individuals and legal entities have been included in the European Union sanctions list as a result of measures taken by the European Union in connection with the situation in Ukraine. A number of individuals have been successfully removed from both the US, EU and Swiss sanctions list already. In this newsletter we will focus on the general legal framework for EU sanctions removal , specific recent successful cases and the LINDEMANNLAW expertise in this area.
1. What is the purpose of EU economic sanctions? When
can persons be removed from the EU Sanctions list?
The primary objective of European Union imposing sanctions
on a legal entity or an individual is to encourage to change
behavior in line with the EU policy goals by that persons and
companies. Economic sanctions are to be distinguished from criminal
punishment. Accordingly, if it can be shown that the basis for the
designation no longer applies, potentially the behavior may have
already been changed at the time the sanctions have been imposed
and respectively at the time that the person or company has been
included in a sanctions list, the relevant person or company has to
be removed from the European Union sanctions list. Successful cases
of EU sanctions removal are typically businesspeople that do not or
no longer support certain government activities, as well as family
members or known contacts that do not or no longer support
sanctioned actors.
2. Are law firms allowed to represent clients?
LINDEMANNLAW is a Swiss law firm acting under the laws of
the Swiss Confederation. While the Swiss Confederation has taken to
implement EU economic sanctions, Swiss law firms are not prohibited
to provide legal representation for sanctioned Russian
individuals1. Swiss law firms are also
allowed to provide legal services to Russian legal entities with
respect to judicial, administrative or arbitral proceedings to
maintain their access to justice.
3. What is the procedure to remove EU sanctions against
an individual?
Inclusion in the sanctions lists is done in the form of
official acts of the European Union executive body – the
European Council2. Although it is
widely acknowledged that sanctions are an instrument of foreign
policy, and thus are of political nature, their introduction must
fit into the public policy leeway that is determined by the legal
framework provided in the founding Treaties of the European Union.
The Council informs individuals and organizations subjected to
these sanctions; and they have the option to seek legal recourse.
They are entitled to offer their observations on the listing and
challenge the imposed measure before the Court of Justice of the
European Union (CJEU). The first applications of such kind date
back to 2014 when the first package was introduced, for
example,T-346-8/14 Yanukovych v Council. The EU legal
framework for sanctions defining the applicants, the powers of the
CJEU, grounds for annulment and its consequences are laid out in
articles 263, 264 and 266 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU)3 and certain
other specific procedural regulation.
4. How long does it take to remove EU sanctions?
The sanctions removal procedure can last as short as 4
months, the average duration is about one calendar year. The person
known to have spent the least time under the EU sanctions is Saodat
Narzieva, the sister of Alisher Usmanov, a Russian UHNWI with
assets in Switzerland and other Western countries. She was added to
the EU Sanctions lists in April 2022 but was removed by September
2022, resulting in a total sanction period of just four full
months4. Other successful cases lasted
ca. 12 calendar months from the application to the CJEU decision on
sanctions removal. In certain cases this may take longer depending
on the circumstances and the complexity of the specific
situation.
5. What successful precedents exist?
By now there are 11 successful precedents of removing of
individuals from the EU and the US sanctions list. Below we offer
the full list to your attention:
Individuals against whom Russia-related sanctions of the EU and the US have been removed:
EU
- Saodat Narzieva
The Guardian
Article link - Olga Ayziman
Official Journal of the European Union
Announcement link - Dmitry Ovsyannikov
EU Court of Justice
Operative part of the ECJ Decision link - Grigory Berezkin
Reuters
Article link - Alexander Shulgin
Financial Times
Article link - Georgy Shuvaev (deceased 2022)
Reuters
Article link
US - Anatoly Karachinskiy
First Russian National to be removed from the U.S. SDN List following the Russian war in Ukraine on May 19, 2023
Article link - Andrey Golikov
Office of Foreign Assets Control
Press-release link - Elena Titova
Finews.ch
Article link - Natalya Alymova
Global Sanctions
Article link - Paul Goldfinch
Global Sanctions
Article link
In 2023 the European Union decided not to renew sanctions against three Russian businessmen: Grigory Berezkin, Farkhad Akhmedov, and Alexander Shulgin. Besides the aforementionedSaodat Narzievacase study,in 2022 Olga Ayziman, the ex-wife of M. Friedman, the founder of Alfa-Bank in Russia, managed to have her EU assets de-frozen. Same year, the CJEU ordered lifting sanctions against Dmitry Ovsyannikov, a Russian national who was the Governor of Sevastopol until July 2019 and in 2019-2020 was Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
6.What are the benefits of a removal
from the SDN list?
The mayor benefit is asset unfreezing after EU sanctions
removal. The former designated person can freely manage all his or
her assets. Especially bank accounts will be deblocked. In
addition, the assets of companies controlled by the former
designated person are unfrozen and can be used to conduct
business.
7. Why LINDEMANNLAW?
- LINDEMANNLAW has experience with removals from EU, Swiss and US sanctions lists as we employ EU, Swiss and US lawyers.
- We haveRussian-speaking lawyers in our team who work on sanctions removal cases and work with Russian-speaking clients for more than 12 years.
- We coordinate simultaneous removals from EU, Swiss and US sanctions lists.
- We have a specialized litigation team.
- Alongside with our team expertise, LINDEMANNLAW utilizes custom-tailored AI technology, internet resources and world intelligence databases that help to verify that the grounds for sanctions had no factual basis or were inaccurately assessed
Footnotes
1 Art. 28e. Verbote betreffend Dienstleistungen. RS 946.231.176.72. Verordnung über Massnahmen im Zusammenhang mit der Situation in der Ukraine. https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2022/151/de.
2 Not to be confused with a supranational organization which also includes non-EU member states,the Council of Europe.
3 OJ C 202, 7.6.2016, pp. 162-163.
4 See, for example: Sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov removed from EU sanctions list. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/16/alisher-usmanov-removed-eu-sanctions-list-saodat-narzieva.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.