"The documents provided by the Council demonstrate, moreover, that Almaz-Antey manufactures anti-aircraft weaponry, including BUK M1-2 and M2E surface-to-air missiles and Aistenok radars, and that it supplies Russia with weaponry. The Council also established that Russia actually supplied weapons to the separatists in Eastern Ukraine," the court said in a statement after the ruling.
The statement went on to say that the evidence produced by the European Union was based on media reports on east Ukrainian fighters shooting down government military planes and helicopters.
"The Council was not required to demonstrate positively that the weapons which Almaz-Antey produced were used in Ukraine by the separatists. Such evidence would be difficult to provide… Furthermore, the Court recalls that the existence merely of a risk that an entity may act reprehensibly may be sufficient to impose an asset freeze on it," the statement concluded.
On July 30, 2014, the EU Council made the decision to include the company in its sanctions lists, saying that Almaz-Antey contributed to the destabilization of Ukraine since "Russian authorities were providing heavy weaponry to separatists in Eastern Ukraine."
Almaz-Antey filed a lawsuit against the EU Council in May 2015, while the second appeal by the company was sent to the EU court in September. The company contests individual sanctions against it, as well as sectoral restrictions.
