A Hamburg court has issued an injunction preventing Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) from repeating a series of allegations it published about Alisher Usmanov, the sanctioned Uzbek-born Russian billionaire, including claims previously aired by the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, according to a January 28 statement from Usmanov’s press office.

The case marks the first time that a court of European jurisdiction has prohibited the dissemination of Navalny's statements addressed to Usmanov.

Navalny died on February 16 last year in a prison camp in Russia’s Far North while serving a long 19-year prison sentence for what his supporters claim were politically motivated charges. His Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), and its extensive investigations into Russian corruption, has been widely used by the EU and others as a source when imposing sanctions on various prominent Russian officials and businessmen.

Based in Frankfurt am Main, FAZ is one of Germany’s most influential national newspapers and is widely regarded as a paper of record, closely followed by the country’s political, legal and business elites.

The dispute stems from an April 2023 FAZ article titled On Behalf of the Kremlin, which, Usmanov’s representatives say, portrayed him as an informal emissary for Russian state interests in Uzbekistan and alleged that he repeatedly used his wealth “in the interests of or on behalf of the Kremlin”.

According to the press office, the Hamburg District Court’s order also bars FAZ from repeating a set of related assertions, including allegations attributed to Navalny that Usmanov “gifted” real estate to entities linked to former Prime Minister and President Dmitry Medvedev, claims concerning a 2002 transaction involving Gazprom Invest Holding, and accusations that Usmanov exerted pressure over the editorial policy of the Kommersant newspaper after acquiring it in 2006.

Usmanov sought the injunction after FAZ declined to sign a cease-and-desist declaration, the statement said. The court found the statements violated Usmanov’s personal rights because they amounted either to factual assertions whose truth FAZ had not demonstrated, or to value judgments not supported by sufficient underlying facts.

Under German law, breaches of such an injunction can be punished by administrative fines of up to €250,000 per violation, or by administrative detention if fines cannot be collected.

Joachim Steinhöfel, the media lawyer representing Usmanov, said in comments carried in the press release that the FAZ article blended “wrong factual statements and discredited narratives from Alexey Navalny” and failed to withstand judicial scrutiny.

“The newspaper’s failure to provide evidence was remarkable, mirroring the collapse of politically motivated investigations against Alisher Usmanov in Germany. This is not the first time that false factual claims have been prohibited by the courts, which repeat essential parts of the reasoning behind the sanctions against Mr. Usmanov. This allows for the legally substantiated assessment that the EU's sanctions reasoning is nothing more than an accumulation of defamatory, groundless and thus illegal allegations” he said.

The ruling comes against the backdrop of Usmanov’s continuing dispute with Western authorities over sanctions imposed since 2022. The EU placed him under an asset freeze and travel ban after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, describing him as a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin. Similar measures were adopted by the US and the UK as part of their Russia sanctions regimes.

Previously, Navalny's assertions and accusations of Usmanov's interference in the editorial policy of the newspaper Kommersant were used to justify the EU sanctions against Usmanov and as grounds for initiating probes into him in Germany.

Usmanov and his legal team argue that contested media allegations have played a role in shaping the sanctions narrative and that court rulings against publishers weaken the evidentiary basis for restrictive measures. That argument has yet to translate into policy change: EU courts have so far upheld his continued listing, even as individual media claims have been struck down or withdrawn.

Now 72-years-old, Usmanov built his fortune primarily in metals and mining and has long been associated with some of Russia’s largest industrial assets, alongside past interests in telecommunications, media and sport. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth currently stands at around $20.3bn, placing him among the world’s wealthiest individuals despite the sanctions.

In Germany, the FAZ injunction is the latest in a series of media-law disputes involving Usmanov, many of them heard in Hamburg courts. Separately in January, the same Hamburg Regional Court prohibited the allegations by Swiss online newspaper Watson, published by CH Media and targeted towards mobile users, that Usmanov owned property at Lake Tegernsee in Germany and the luxurious Dilbar yacht. Earlier, the court had made similar decisions against Tagesspiegel (Germany), Exxpress (Austria), Luxtimes (Luxembourg), Blick (Switzerland) and others.

These cases run in parallel with sanctions-related legal developments, including German prosecutorial investigations linked to the restrictions imposed on him that were later discontinued without charges.

Usmanov’s press office says that between 2023 and 2026 his lawyers secured numerous court decisions and cease-and-desist undertakings, resulting in the removal or correction of hundreds of articles. Taken together, the cases form part of what his representatives describe as a sustained legal campaign to challenge what they argue are false or unsubstantiated claims circulating in the European media.