The case concerned a publication from April 2023 entitled “According to the Kremlin's instructions”, in which Usmanov's alleged connections with Russian power elites were described.
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The judgment includes, among others: claims about his contacts with high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation.
Russian oligarch's lawyer: sanctions based on slander
Commenting on the court's decision, the billionaire's lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel emphasized that the ban also covers the duplication of “repeated key elements of the justification” of sanctions imposed on his client by the European Union.
“This judgment allows for a legally correct assessment that the justification for the European Union sanctions is nothing more than a set of defamatory, baseless, and therefore illegal allegations,” the lawyer said.
The Russian is still on the sanctions list. Who is Alisher Usmanov?
Despite the favorable outcome in Germany Usmanov remains under EU restrictions. It was added to the sanctions list shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He is banned from entering the EU and some of his assets have been frozen in connection with “actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
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An EU Council implementing regulation describes him as someone “closely linked” to Vladimir Putin. The document also stated that he “actively supported materially or financially the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine and benefited from this.” According to Bloomberg The oligarch's fortune is estimated at nearly $19 billion.
Businessman is also subject United States sanctions.
A series of legal victories for Putin's man
As Reuters notes, the lawsuit against “FAZ” was not Usmanov's first attempt to challenge the charges and penalties in European courts – and not the first one that ended with success.
At the end of 2025 German authorities agreed to close an investigation into alleged violations of international trade law, provided they pay a fine of EUR 10 million. In turn, in 2024 – as reported by Usmanov's press office – proceedings regarding money laundering charges were discontinued.
