EU court annuls sanctions against Wagner CEO Prigozhin’s mother
Віолетта Пригожина (Photo:Molbert Art Gallery/Facebook)
The European Union’s General Court has annulled personal sanctions against Violetta Prigozhina, mother of Wagner Group private military company leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the court said in a press release on March 8.
Previously, the Council of the European Union sanctioned members of Russian government, banks, business, and MPs, over Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhina was initially sanctioned due to the ties to her son, who is responsible for the deployment of Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine and for benefitting from large public contracts from the Russian Ministry of Defence following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and occupation of eastern Ukraine by Russia-backed forces.
Prigozhina is the owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC. The company belongs to the Concord group, which was founded and owned until 2019 by her son. She also owns other undertakings with links to Prigozhin.
The Council believes that she has therefore supported actions and policies that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine, which is what led to the sanctions.
She appealed the decision, and in a judgement delivered on March 8, the General Court granted her request.
“Even if (Prigozhina) is responsible for actions undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine, the link between Prigozhina and her son established at the time of adoption of the contested acts is based solely on their family connection and is therefore not sufficient to justify her inclusion on the contested lists,” the court’s ruling said.
The United States recognized Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization on Jan. 26. The Ukrainian parliament passed a similar resolution a few days later.
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