‘Publicity stunt’ claims against Shapps as Abramovich ally’s sanctions challenge fails at top court
Roman Abramovich’s ‘right-hand man’ Eugene Shvidler has taken aim at former defence secretary Grant Shapps after the Supreme Court rejected his UK sanctions appeal.
The billionaire and long-term friend of the former Chelsea FC owner Abramovich was added to the UK’s sanctions list in March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
From 1996 to 2005, Shvidler held the roles of vice president for finance and then president of Sibneft, an oil production company owned by Abramovich.
He was granted British citizenship in 2010 and is a dual national of the United States and the United Kingdom, having emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1989 and subsequently renounced his Soviet citizenship.
The billionaire brought the first-ever court challenge over the UK’s Russia sanctions regime back in early 2023 and has since been involved in a legal battle with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs.
The case was heard by the English High Court and the Court of Appeal, which both sided with the UK Government. He then brought his case to the Supreme Court in January, arguing that the sanctions infringe his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case put a large spotlight on the power of the post-Brexit UK sanctions regime.
But on Tuesday the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal by a majority.
All Justices agreed, but Lord Leggatt wrote a separate judgment highlighting the sanctions as an unjustified invasion of liberty due to “flimsy” government reasons, which he argued undermined the judicial protection of fundamental freedoms.
In a strongly worded statement, Shvidler said: “This Supreme Court judgment brings me back to the USSR, which I left as a stateless refugee 36 years ago, seeking sanctuary in the US. Back then, individuals could be stripped of their rights with little or no protections, and that is how I feel about this judgment.”
He claimed that he “was never on the Government’s radar to be sanctioned”.
“It was only because Grant Shapps, seeking publicity, unlawfully grounded my plane and then lobbied Liz Truss to sanction me to save face. Yet, with no sense of irony, the Supreme Court describes this as the UK Government displaying ‘institutional competence’.”
“The court has decided that it is fine to sacrifice me and my family, as UK citizens, indefinitely, as it contributes to the ‘cumulative effect’, relying on conduct that was not even sanctionable at the time,” he added.
The billionaire also alleged that no British entities with strong ties to Russian companies have been sanctioned, and implyed that the UK government’s sanctioning policy is a politically motivated “virtue-signalling” exercise that targets those of Russian heritage while protecting the British establishment.