BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman and his business partner Petr Aven won a rare victory against EU sanctions over Moscow's war against Ukraine on Wednesday, but remain under punitive measures for the time being.
The European Union Court of Justice (ECJ), the bloc's top court, annulled sanctions imposed on the pair in 2022-23 saying the bloc had failed to provide sufficient evidence that the men had supported the Kremlin's actions or policies against Ukraine.
"The General Court considers that none of the reasons set out in the initial acts is sufficiently substantiated and that the inclusion of Mr Aven and Mr Fridman on the lists at issue was therefore not justified," the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.
The ruling causes an embarrassment - but no immediate change - for the bloc, which slapped sanctions on more than 1,700 individuals and entities deemed directly involved, benefiting from, or otherwise complicit when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
A spokesman for the court said the sanctions that had been successfully appealed had already expired. He said the two men currently remained under EU sanctions because the punitive measures against them were since rolled over, both in March 2023 and again last month, in what formally are separate decisions.
The duo have appealed the 2023 extension. The court spokesman said their cases were at the initial stages and would take months to consider.
FRIDMAN 'SATISFIED' WITH RULING
Fridman and Aven are major shareholders of conglomerate Alfa Group, which includes Russia's top private bank Alfa Bank and its biggest food retailer X5 Retail Group.
Fridman told the RBC media outlet that he and Aven were "satisfied" with Wednesday's court decision.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia believed such sanctions were both illegal and destructive but that businessmen had the opportunity to challenge them.
EU sanctions against individuals and entities include a travel ban and an asset freeze. The bloc has also imposed financial, energy and defence trade restrictions on Russia, as well as supporting Kyiv in its fight against Moscow.
Though most of the EU's punitive measures still hold, the ECJ last month voided sanctions against a Russian former F1 driver Nikita Mazepin.
The bloc also decided in March not to extend sanctions against three men, including co-founder of Russian internet giant Yandex, Arkady Volozh, who has dismissed Russia's war in Ukraine as "barbaric" since being sanctioned.
The ECJ spokesperson said there were dozens of sanctions appeals lodged at the court. In February, the ECJ dismissed two, including one by Russian-Uzbek metals and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov.
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Reporting by Inti Landauro and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Sharon Singleton