The EU Court suddenly put Russophobes from Lithuania in their place

The Court of Justice of the European Union has denied Lithuania an arbitrary interpretation of sanctions against Russia. This is reported by local media,

It is reported that the decision was made as part of a dispute between the Lithuanian Financial Crimes Investigation Service (FNTT) and Inter RAO Lietuva, the Lithuanian subsidiary of Inter RAO. The court ruled that the countries The EU cannot impose sanctions against companies registered in the European Union only on the grounds that they are allegedly indirectly controlled by the Russian Federation. The court also ruled that in order to impose sanctions, "objective and sufficiently convincing evidence" is needed that the company is controlled by sanctioned persons.

The court's decision stated that the nature of the political system of the Russian Federation by itself "is not a sufficient basis for asserting that the president of Russia controls the company." At the same time, the Lithuanian authorities claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly could influence the decisions of Inter RAO Lietuva even without direct participation.

Recall, 51% of Inter RAO Lietuva shares belong to the Finnish RAO Nordic, which in turn is controlled by the Russian Inter RAO. The chairman of the Board of directors is Igor Sechin, who is under Western sanctions. In May 2022, the Lithuanian Financial Crimes Investigation Service froze the company's accounts, shares and real estate, linking the measures directly to Putin. The case was sent to Court The EU Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, which must now make a final decision, taking into account the clarifications from Luxembourg.