A Russian oligarch sanctioned over his alleged links to Vladimir Putin has asked a court to render Australia’s sanctions regime invalid, documents show.
Australia imposed sanctions on billionaire Oleg Deripaska in March last year, a move that prevented him from travelling to Australia or profiting from his company’s stake in an alumina refinery in Gladstone, Queensland.
At the time, the then foreign minister, Marise Payne, said the sanctions were designed to place “pressure on the oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin”, Russia’s president.
Deripaska launched a federal court challenge against the decision earlier this year, asking for a judge to render it void and of no effect.
On Thursday, he amended his case to seek a declaration from the court that the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, which provides for the deployment of Australian sanctions, is “invalid”.
The oligarch says the sanctions regulations are invalid because they effectively stop him from personally travelling to Australia and approaching a court to challenge the sanctions decision.
His lawyers can only approach a court on his behalf with the minister’s permission and under certain conditions, and his lawyers’ freedom to communicate about “any government decision relating to [Deripaska] is infringed in a manner that contravenes the implied constitutional freedom of political communication”.
Deripaska’s lawyers at Pragma, a Perth-based firm, has previously confirmed that the former attorney general Christian Porter was working on Deripaska’s legal team.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was unable to comment on the new aspect of Deripaska’s case, because it was before the courts.
Deripaska was among the oligarchs sanctioned by the US in 2018 for reasons including Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. He was also included by the UK and EU as authorities cracked down on influential business figures over the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Deripaska told the Financial Times that Russia had weathered the sanctions imposed over its Ukraine invasion surprisingly well.
He said he had previously thought the sanctions would bankrupt the Kremlin, but admitted “surprise” at Russia’s resilience.
“I was surprised that private business would be so flexible. I was more or less sure that up to 30% of the economy would collapse, but it was way less,” he said.
“Yes, there is war spending and all this kind of subsidies and government support but still it’s a surprisingly low slowdown … The private economy found its way to operate and to do so successfully.”
In March, Deripaska said Russia could run out of money by next year unless the country secures investment from “friendly” countries as western sanctions bite.
“There will be no money already next year. We will need foreign investors,” he told an investment conference in Siberia. “Now, for the next 25 years, we will think more about our Asian past.”
The Australian government said its decision to sanction Deripaska related to his “close personal ties to Putin”, which along with his business interests, allowed the government to be satisfied that he had been “engaging in an activity or performing a function that is of economic or strategic significance to Russia”, court documents show. The government also asserted Deripaska had previously said “that he does not separate himself from the Russian state” and had “acknowledged possessing a Russian diplomatic passport”.
Deripaska described those assertions as “vague” and of “unknown provenance”. He also denied that he had been performing any function of economic or strategic significance to Russia.
His challenge to the Australian sanctions denies that he “is, or has been, engaging in an activity or performing a function that is of economic or strategic significance to Russia”.
His court documents also described the sanctions as “legally unreasonable” and “irrational”, involving an “improper exercise” of Australia’s sanctions powers.
Deripaska founded aluminium producer Rusal, the biggest aluminium producer outside China, and its parent energy company En+, and made his fortune buying stakes in aluminium refineries across the world. He initially expressed some reservation about the Ukraine invasion, saying he saw “no value” in the conflict, but has since tempered his criticisms.
