The largest Russian investor in Spain and owner of Dia will challenge the EU sanctions for being "unfair"
ABC
Updated:03/01/2022 12:23h
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Tycoons Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven will challenge the sanctions imposed by the European Union in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, considering them "unfair" and based on "malicious and deliberate falsehoods", while claiming to be "deeply disappointed" with the decision of Brussels and reject ties with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
“They are malicious and deliberate falsehoods, pure and simple, the product of historical fantasies and conspiracy theories devised by private individuals with their own agendas,” Fridman and Aven, majority shareholders of LetterOne, said in a statement, to which Europa Press had access. , a company that in turn is the main shareholder of Dia.
Both describe themselves as "long-term investors, committed to European companies that employ tens of thousands of people in the UK and Europe" and who "have always been totally transparent about their business and wealth."
In the opinion of Fridman and Aven, sanctions based on "malicious gossip and without evidence" will have no impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine, because both claim that they "have no financial or political relationship with President Putin or the Kremlin."
In fact, in the case of Fridman, the tycoon assures that it is false that he has cultivated "strong ties" with the administration of the Russian president, that he has been described as a "high-ranking Russian financier and facilitator of Putin's inner circle" and that " managed to acquire state assets through government connections.”
Likewise, Fridman denies that Putin's eldest daughter ran a charity project that was financed by Alfa Bank and that the Russian president rewarded Alfa Group's loyalty to the Russian authorities by providing political aid to the company's foreign investment plans. .
Furthermore, he claims that it is false that both he and Aven participated in the Kremlin's efforts to lift Western sanctions issued in order to counter Russia's aggressive policy against Ukraine and that they were unofficial emissaries of the Russian government.
Dia assures that she has not been affected by the sanction imposed on Fridman
The Dia Group assured this Tuesday that it has not been affected by the sanction imposed on its majority shareholder, the Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, and showed its “solidarity” with Ukraine after the invasion suffered by this country by the Russian army. Together with the publication this Tuesday of the company's annual results for the 2021 financial year, DIA recalled that it is "a Spanish company, founded in Madrid and present today in four countries, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal, where 36,000 people They work every day to create close relationships with the communities where they operate.”
"The current Board of Directors is made up of Spanish, Brazilian and Portuguese members, who try to reflect the interests of different international markets in a plural way," continued the company, which also stressed that during its more than 40-year history, "the shareholders of Grupo Dia has been made up of investors of various nationalities and origins”, and that “currently, its majority shareholder, LetterOne, is an international Anglo-Luxembourg company”.
For this reason, the executive president of the Dia Group, Stephan Ducharme, sent "a message of stability" and assured that the company "has not currently been affected, in any way" by the sanction imposed on Fridman.
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