A Hamburg court on Jan. 23 ordered Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung not to republish certain passages from an April 2023 article that linked Alisher Usmanov to senior Russian officials. Usmanov, worth about $18.8 billion, remains subject to EU and U.S. sanctions and a travel ban and has filed multiple lawsuits across Europe to contest those measures. Germany also agreed to close a trade investigation if he paid €10 million, and prosecutors dropped a 2024 money-laundering inquiry.
Hamburg Court Bans FAZ From Repeating Kremlin-Link Allegations About Alisher Usmanov
Russian businessman and founder of USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov attends a session during the Week of Russian Business, organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), in Moscow, Russia March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
MOSCOW, Jan 28 (Reuters) — Court documents seen by Reuters show that a Hamburg court on Jan. 23 ordered the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) not to republish several passages from an April 2023 article titled 'On the Kremlin's Instructions' that linked Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov to senior Russian officials.
The interim ruling bars FAZ from disseminating specific statements that the court found could not be legally repeated without further substantiation. The decision does not itself overturn the sanctions imposed by the European Union or the United States, but it prevents the newspaper from republishing the cited passages while litigation continues.
Sanctions, Lawsuits and Legal Strategy
Usmanov, whose net worth is estimated at $18.8 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, remains subject to EU and U.S. sanctions and a travel ban imposed after the start of the war in Ukraine. He has pursued a multi-front legal strategy across Europe, filing lawsuits that challenge both the sanctions and media reports that have been cited in support of those measures.
Joachim Steinhofel, a lawyer for Usmanov, said the passages banned from further distribution "repeated essential parts of the reasoning behind the sanctions against Mr Usmanov." He added: "This (the court decision) allows for the legally substantiated assessment that the EU sanctions' reasoning is nothing more than an accumulation of defamatory, groundless, and thus illegal allegations."
Recent Developments in Germany
Last month, German authorities reached an agreement with Usmanov to close an investigation into alleged foreign trade law violations on condition that he pay 10 million euros ($11.98 million). Separately, German prosecutors dropped a money-laundering inquiry into Usmanov in 2024.
The Hamburg ruling represents a tactical victory for Usmanov's legal team as they seek to limit publication of statements they say have been used to justify sanctions. Legal proceedings in related cases and any appeal of the Hamburg decision could affect whether the banned passages are republished in the future.
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Timothy Heritage.)
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