No exceptional approval for payments to private school in Moscow
Published: Tuesday, Nov 21st 2023, 12:10
العودة إلى البث المباشر
The federal government was right not to grant an exemption for payments from Swiss bank accounts to the charity fund of a private school in Moscow. This was decided by the Federal Administrative Court. The accounts belong to a company in Cyprus that is controlled by a Russian on the EU sanctions list.
This public limited company is the wholly-owned subsidiary of a company based in Russia. The Russian and the Cypriot company lodged an appeal against the decision of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs with the Federal Administrative Court, as is evident from a ruling published on Tuesday.
The Russian was the founder of the private school. At the end of 2021, the company and the charity fund concluded two donation agreements. In these, a payment of 345,000,000 Russian roubles was agreed for the financing of the private school.
The second agreement provided for a transfer of 570,000 US dollars and 150,000 British pounds. These amounts were to finance scholarships for courses at 25 leading universities in the USA and the UK. The contributions had not yet been transferred in full before the Russian was sanctioned.
Further donation
One day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the management of the Cyprus-based public limited company decided to make a donation of around 26 million US dollars to the charity fund for the current year.
The Federal Administrative Court confirms that the gifts are indirectly related to the complainant. Furthermore, there is no case of hardship that would allow payment despite the sanctions imposed. The financing of the private school, including the awarding of scholarships, does not serve to secure goods that are indispensable for human existence.
The complainants had argued that students belonged to the target group of the hardship regulation. Even if this were to be followed, the Federal Administrative Court writes, studying abroad at a world-leading university would not serve to cover basic needs. (Judgement B-547/2023 of 7.11.2023)
©كيستون/إسدا
Arabic 
English 
German 
French 
Spanish