Billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s lawyer has petitioned Germany’s top court for permission to sue the bloc’s council
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s legal team is seeking clearance to sue the EU Council for defamation over its rationale for sanctioning him, Euronews reported on Wednesday, citing court documents. The case is the first of its kind, the outlet noted.
Usmanov’s lawyer, Joachim Steinhoefel, has appealed to Germany’s top court, challenging the statement of reasons the EU Council adopted in 2023 to justify personal sanctions against the metals and telecoms tycoon, according to Euronews.
Key allegations in the document have been shown to be unjustified, the lawyer argued.
One of the reasons given was that Usmanov “reportedly fronted for [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and solved his business problems” – a claim the EU Council attributed to Forbes. Last year, a Hamburg court ruled the company’s claim was unlawful and defamatory. Forbes has since argued it was a protected opinion and not a statement of fact.
“A journalist’s expression of opinion cannot serve as a basis for sanctions. The Council cannot publish it as a purported statement of fact if the author has clarified it was opinion,” Euronews cited Steinhoefel as saying.
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The lawyer has argued that the EU’s sanctions rationale is based on hundreds of articles that have now been removed or edited, following dozens of court decisions.
Our concrete examples appear to show that the Council does not meaningfully verify sources and is satisfied with unverified press cuttings – even where the author recants, including in court.
Steinhoefel has claimed this practice falls short of the EU’s case-law standards, which permit the Council to cite press reports only if they come from multiple independent sources, contain specific facts, and are reliable and consistent with the record.
The lawyer has also argued that the Council defamed Usmanov when it alleged he “actively supported” the “destabilization of Ukraine,” by virtue of his businesses’ contributions to the Russian tax budget.
Sanctioning legitimate businesses in order to leverage foreign policy is “coercion by proxy,” Steinhoefel has argued.
The EU imposed sanctions on the 71-year-old Usmanov shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Bloomberg has estimated the tycoon’s worth at $16.8 billion, as of August.
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