Russian billionaire and spouse win challenge to EU sanctions in key legal victory
Billionaire Russian businessman Dmitry Alexandrovich Pumpyanskiy and his spouse Galina Evgenyevna Pumpyanskaya gained a major victory in their multiyear challenge to EU sanctions, after the European Union’s General Court annulled their listings in separate judgments.
In rulings on 2 April, the Luxembourg-based court found that the EU Council had failed to provide sufficient evidence that either individual met the criteria for inclusion on the Ukraine-related sanctions lists.
In both cases, the court determined that the Council made an ‘error of assessment’ when maintaining the couple’s names on the sanctions lists, which impose asset freezes and travel restrictions.
‘The Council has not discharged the burden of proof incumbent on it in order to establish that the applicant benefited from a leading businessperson operating in Russia,’ the court stated in its judgment regarding Ms Pumpyanskaya.
Its decisions focused particularly on the Council’s attempt to designate Mr Pumpyanskiy as a ‘leading businessperson operating in Russia’ who provided ‘a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation’ – classifications that would justify sanctions under the EU’s Ukraine-related restrictive measures.
The judges found that the evidence presented by the Council was insufficient, noting that Mr Pumpyanskiy had resigned from his positions as chairman of the board of directors of metallurgical company TMK and as President and board member of Group Sinara in March 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Council had argued that Mr. Pumpyanskiy maintained significant business interests in Russia, including through an investment company called ORV Invest JSC, but the court rejected this argument because it was not included in the official grounds for his designation.
His wife’s sanctions were based entirely on her relationship with him, with the Council claiming she was ‘an immediate family member benefitting from her husband’. The court dismissed this designation after finding that Mr Pumpyanskiy himself did not meet the criteria for sanctions.
Ms. Pumpyanskaya had argued that she was financially independent from her husband after selling her shares in Group Sinara and that they were separated, with her residing in Dubai.
The judgments represent significant legal victories for the Russian couple, who have been challenging their sanctions designations through multiple cases. Mr Pumpyanskiy had previously won a similar case in June last year, when the court annulled earlier sanctions maintenance decisions against him.
In November 2023, the couple’s son, Alexander Pumpyanskiy, won an appeal for the lifting of EU sanctions. He had been designated for his roles in the companies and his association with the companies through his father.
