The European Court of Justice has annulled the European Union's sanctions against former F1-driver Nikita Mazepin. The court ruled that "family ties to his father, Russian businessman Dmitry Mazepin, are insufficient grounds to consider him as sharing common interests with his father and, therefore, to keep him on these (sanction) lists," according to a statement quoted by TASS.
The EU Council failed to demonstrate that the Mazepins, father and son, had shared economic or capital interests at the time of their inclusion on the sanctions list. Furthermore, since March 2022, Nikita Mazepin has ceased to be a driver for the team sponsored by his father.
Nikita Mazepin was subject to EU sanctions introduced in March 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. As a result of these restrictions, he lost his position in Formula 1 when the Haas team terminated its contract with the driver and its title sponsor, Uralchem, of which billionaire Dmitry Mazepin is a co-owner.
The EU Council extended sanctions against the younger Mazepin three times (in September 2022, March, and September 2023). The European Court of Justice suspended their enforcement, noting that the restrictive measures should not affect the Russian's professional activities as a racer. However, the EU Council did not take these decisions into account.
Earlier in March, the EU removed from its sanctions list Yandex founder Arkady Volozh, former vice president of AFK Sistema Sergey Mndoyants, and the president of the European chapter of the Night Wolves motorcycle club, Josef Hambalek.
Sanctions were also lifted from deceased Russians: Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin, State Duma deputies Nikolay Bortsov and Viktor Zubarev, Deputy Defense Minister Gennady Zhidko, and Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov.
However, the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in August last year along with Utkin, was not removed from the sanctions list. This was explained by the fact that Prigozhin's son became the beneficiary of his assets, which could still be used against Ukraine.
