Formula 1: European justice cancels sanctions against Russian driver Nikita Mazepin

European justice on Wednesday canceled EU sanctions against Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin, son of a Russian oligarch, considering the parentage insufficient to justify punitive measures in connection with the war in Ukraine.

In March 2022, the European Union placed the chemical billionaire, Dimitri Mazepin, and his son, on its “black list” established since the annexation of Crimea by Moscow in 2014. In total, 1,752 people and 425 entities were banned from entering the EU and their assets in the 27 member countries frozen. “The family relationship with his father (...) is not enough to consider (Nikita Mazepin) as being linked to him by common interests and, therefore, to keep him” on the sanctions list, estimated the General Court of the EU in its judgment.

The Russian pilot's inclusion on this list was based on a criterion of association with his father, an influential businessman, boss of the Uralchem ​​chemical group, whose activity constitutes a source of income for the Russian government. Nikita Mazepin had appealed to the General Court of the European Union to have the acts of the Council of the EU annulled, considering that they were tainted by an error of assessment. “According to established case law, (the association criterion) implies the existence of a link going beyond a family relationship, established in the light of a body of sufficiently concrete, precise and consistent evidence”, explained the Court, ruling that this “association” was in this case “in no way established”.

Nikita Mazepin was ousted from the American Formula 1 team Haas after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022, Italian authorities sequestered a villa worth more than 100 million euros linked to Nikita Mazepin. In March 2023, the same court had already issued an interim order suspending part of the sanctions against Nikita Mazepin and authorizing him again to compete in car races. She had also canceled EU sanctions against the mother of the head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeni Prigojine (died in August 2023), considering Violetta Prigojina's bond with her son insufficient.