The EU’s Supreme Court located in Luxembourg has recognized the anti-Russian sanctions as legitimate. In case you don’t know, the European Union introduced sanctions against a range of Russian companies after the Russian Federation annexed the Crimea by taking it away from Ukraine. This means that the Court has now rejected the claim filed by Rosneft, a major Russian oil company.
The representatives of Rosneft claim that the sanctions imposed on Russian companies contradict the internal legislation of the European Union. As for the details of the claim, they are not revealed. The sanctions were introduced in July 2014. After that, Rosneft filed a claim in the Supreme Court of the European Union against the Euro Council responsible for imposing sanctions on Russia. Similar claims were filed by such banking giants as Sberbank, Vnesheconombank, and VTB, as well as several subsidiaries of Gazprom, including Gazpromneft.
When commenting on the court decision related to the legitimacy of those sanctions, Rosneft said that those sanctions are not beneficial for the EU as well while this is a way to favor their rivals in the market. The thing is that Rosneft claims that they haven’t seen any clear explanations of why Russian companies should be restricted from international financial markets because of the annexation of the Crimea.
That is why they think that this decision is designed to favor their rivals in financial markets, including the international market of crude oil. By the way, this is not the first time, the Supreme Court has declined the claim filed by a Russian company. Back in January 2017, a Russian company named Almaz Atey also tried to restore justice in the EU court but failed to do so.
