Russia sanctions under spotlight in landmark case with Abramovich ally

The UK Russian sanctions will be under the microscope at the Supreme Court today as Roman Abramovich’s ‘right-hand man ‘ Eugene Shvidler seeks to remove the sanctions against him.

Shvidler is a US-British dual national, after he left the former Soviet Union in 1989, renouncing his citizenship in order to do so, and moved to the USA.

He was then granted British citizenship in 2010.

He is a long-term friend of the former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, which as a result of this friendship, he was added to the UK’s sanctions list in March 2022.

Billionaire Shvidler also had two of his private jets , including a $45m Bombardier Global 6500 jet, seized by the British government.

From 1996 until 2005 he held the roles of vice-president for finance and then president of Sibneft, an oil production company owned by Abramovich.

While in 2011, he was appointed to the board of a former FTSE 100 firm Evraz, a then UK listed company with subsidiaries in various jurisdictions, including Russia.

In March 2022, steel giant Evraz was suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Shvidler went on the bring the first-ever court challenge over the UK’s Russia sanctions regime back in early 2023, as he argues the sanctions are a disproportionate infringement on his rights, under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case has already proceeded to the English High Court and the Court of Appeal , which both sided in favour of the Department of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.

Last May, he received a green light to take his case to the Supreme Court, which all eyes set for the top court to weigh in for the first time on Britain’s post-Brexit sanctions regime.

His case is at a hearing on Wednesday for one day in front of the Justices, a decision will be handed down at a later date.