Court of Justice of the European Union Upholds Sanctions Against Russian Company Almaz-Antey (January 25, 2017) [1]
On January 25, 2017, the General Court of the European Union ruled [3] in Joint-Stock Company “Almaz-Antey” Air and Space Defence Corp. v. Council to uphold the freezing of assets of the Russian state-owned company, Almaz-Antey. The sanctions were introduced in response to the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014. According to the press release [4], “the Council did not act disproportionately in deciding to freeze the funds of entities supporting, materially or financially, actions of the Russian Government which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” Additionally, the Court ruled that “by manufacturing weapons and military equipment and supplying them to the Russian State, which itself supplies weapons to the separatists in Eastern Ukraine, Almaz-Antey materially supports actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” Finally, the Court stated that the Council did not have to affirmatively prove that the weapons at issue were used by the separatists, reasoning that “the existence merely of a risk that an entity may act reprehensibly may be sufficient to impose an asset freeze on it.”