State-owned Russian oil company Rosneft and Arkady Rotenberg have launched legal challenges against sanctions imposed by the EU's European Council over Russia's actions in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.
Rosneft filed a case in the European Court of Justice's General Court on Oct. 9 against restrictions that bar Russia's energy companies and state banks from raising capital in European capital markets, the report said.
Rotenberg, whose assets in Italy were frozen last month and who was slapped with an EU visa ban in July, appealed the ban on Oct. 10 in the same court.
The appeal against the sanctions, filed by Rosneft on behalf of the company and other unidentified parties, also affects state-owned companies such as Sberbank, VTB Bank, VEB, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank, Gazprom Neft and Transneft, the newspaper reported.
Spokespersons for Rotenberg, the EU and the Russian companies affected could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.
Earlier this month, Rosneft issued a tender seeking the services of UK-certified lawyers in its fight against Ukraine-related Western sanctions.
The challenges follow verdicts by EU courts that have annulled bans imposed on Syrian and Iranian companies.
