The European Union's highest court has ruled to lift sanctions against 83-year-old Violetta Prigozhina, the mother of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, Reuters reports.
Earlier, the EU blacklisted Violetta Prigozhina because of business ties with her son and called her an accomplice in Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
The wording with which Prigozhina was added to the sanctions list: “Violetta Prigozhina is the owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC, which is owned by the Concord group, associated with her son. She is associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is responsible for the deployment of Wagner PMC mercenaries in Ukraine and is the beneficiary of large government contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. <…> Therefore, it supports actions and policies that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
Now the court has canceled the restrictive measures against her.
Violetta Prygozhina herself denies that she is the owner of any companies founded by her son, and points out that her family ties do not mean that she herself infringes on the territorial integrity of Ukraine in any way.
Yevgeny Prigozhin himself has been under US sanctions since 2016, since 2020 under EU and UK sanctions, and since 2022 under Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.
At the end of February, the FT edition wrote that Yevgeny Prigozhin managed to pass the test of a British law firm by showing his mother's utility bill.
Judging by media reports , Violetta Prigozhina was educated as a doctor, but recently “began her creative path as an artist”:
“In February 2017, she started taking drawing lessons for the first time, and in October she had her first exhibition. Violetta Kirovna's previous exhibitions reflected the theme of Silver Age poetry, impressionism and Japanese art."