The European Union’s sanctioning of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for his alleged links to President Putin was a political move by the bloc’s leaders to clamp down on a famous Russian, his lawyer told an EU court.

At a hearing in the EU’s General Court on Wednesday, Abramovich’s legal team hit out at claims that his privileged relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed him to line his pockets while his company provides a “substantial source of revenue” to the Russian war effort in Ukraine.

Abramovich was placed on the EU sanctions list by the EU in part due to his fame, rather than “based on evidence,” lawyer Thierry Bontinck said.

Abramovich saw his travel restricted and his EU assets frozen after he was placed on the bloc’s sanctions list in March for his alleged close links to Putin and by extension, the country’s war efforts in Ukraine.

“A myth has grown up around the personality of Roman Abramovich,” Bontinck said of the high-profile former owner of Chelsea Football Club. He never had a “chance of avoiding being put under restrictive measures,” his lawyer said.

Abramovich, 56, is one of the richest people in Russia who became widely known after the sale of Sibneft oil company to state-run Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005. The billionaire was forced to sell Chelsea for £4.25 billion ($5.3 billion) after being sanctioned by the UK in March, ending nearly two decades as owner of the West London club. The EU followed with sanctions days later.

As a shareholder of the steel group Evraz, one of Russia’s largest taxpayers, Abramovich is a leading Russian businessmen. He has also maintained “close and cordial” relations with President Putin, and “benefited clearly from his abnormally close relationship with Putin,” according to a lawyer for the bloc.

The EU’s charge sheet hit Abramovich and a tranche of other Russian billionaires and oligarchs after the invasion last February, freezing his assets and restricting travel across the bloc. The former Chelsea magnate has remained in Nemchinovo, on the outskirts of Moscow,

Abramovich is one among many sanctioned Russian billionaires, who have challenged sanctions against them at the EU’s highest court. Last week, a lawyer for Mikail Fridman that the oligarch’s life had been “destroyed” by the EU restrictions.

While Abramovich has stopped short of explicitly condemning Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, his spokesperson last year said that the Ukrainian government attempted to solicit Abramovich’s help in “achieving a peaceful solution” amid the ongoing conflict. Abramovich had agreed to Ukraine’s request in helping to set up humanitarian corridors for those fleeing the war in Ukraine, his lawyer said.

The case number is T-313/22 Abramovich v Council.

--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni.