Billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s legal counsel has approached Germany’s highest court, seeking authorization to initiate a lawsuit against the EU Council.
The legal team representing Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov is endeavoring to secure permission to sue the EU Council for defamation concerning its rationale for imposing sanctions, Euronews reported on Wednesday, citing court documents. The publication highlighted that this particular case is unprecedented.
According to the outlet, Usmanov’s lawyer, Joachim Steinhoefel, has appealed to Germany’s top court, disputing the statement of reasons adopted by the EU Council in 2023 to justify personal sanctions against the metals and telecoms magnate.
The lawyer contended that key assertions in the document have been demonstrated as unfounded.
One of the provided justifications 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 deemed the company’s claim unlawful and defamatory. Forbes has since maintained it was a protected opinion and not a factual statement.
“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 quoted Steinhoefel as stating.
The legal representative has asserted that the EU’s sanctions rationale rests on hundreds of articles that have since been removed or edited, following dozens of judicial decisions.
Our specific instances appear to show that the Council does not meaningfully verify sources and is satisfied with uncorroborated press clippings – even where the author recants, including in court.
Steinhoefel has claimed that this practice falls short of the EU’s case-law standards, which permit the Council to cite press reports only if they originate from multiple independent sources, contain specific facts, and are reliable and consistent with the official record.
The lawyer has further argued that the Council defamed Usmanov by alleging 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, Steinhoefel has contended, constitutes “coercion by proxy.”
The EU imposed sanctions on Usmanov, aged 71, shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Bloomberg has estimated the tycoon’s net worth at $16.8 billion, as of August.