SANCTIONED NO MORE — A former economist at energy giant Gazprom recently won a legal fight to have his name removed from Canada's sprawling list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs and close VLADIMIR PUTIN allies.
IGOR SHATALOV, who was added to the sanctions list on Oct. 2, 2022, asserted in an application for judicial review in Federal Court this past June that he was not a senior official in a company in Russia's energy sector — and the feds were unjustified in slapping sanctions on him. GLEN MCGREGOR reported on the application at the time. Ukraine's anti-corruption agency called on Western allies, including the U.S. and EU, to target Shatalov. Only Canada did. Shatalov's court filings describe a man who was not only far removed from Russia's fight with Ukraine, but more financially and morally supportive of the Ukrainian side of the conflict. He made several eye-opening claims about his pre-sanctions life: — Gazprom disapproved of his marriage: Shatalov married a Ukrainian citizen, and says the company responded by demoting him from deputy head of the financial and economic department to a "much lower-ranked position" as chief economist elsewhere. — He left Russia: In November 2018, Shatalov took an extended parental leave, moved with his family to Monaco, and says he "had no involvement whatsoever" with Gazprom until he quit in 2021. He says he spends most of his time with family, and tends to his investments. — He supports his in-laws: Shatalov claims to offer financial assistance to his wife's sister, parents and grandparents. His mother-in-law lives in Cyprus, but the docs claim his father-in-law is "not permitted" to leave Ukraine. The grandparents are also in Ukraine. — He supports refugees: Shatalov claims to support a Cyprus-based charity that "funds Greek language learning programs for children of Ukrainian refugees." — Crickets: Shatalov argued in the court documents that Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY failed to make the case for including him on the sanctions list. Joly, the docs claim, also failed to respond to his application for delisting within the legislated 90-day window. — The legalese: "The Minister acted contrary to law upon making her initial decision and in failing to make a decision to remove [Shatalov]," reads the application. "The Minister is in breach of the Russia Regulations and of Canada’s international law obligations." WILLIAM PELLERIN, a partner in the international trade group at McMillan, offered Playbook a couple of scenarios. Ottawa could have simply not prioritized the file, he said, or it could have sat on its hands deliberately. "It may have been a conscious decision to simply not respond, or not [to] provide the delisting request any consideration," he said. "There's a strong imperative in the government policy realm to not do anything that can even be remotely seen as supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine." Global Affairs offers few details when it announces sanctions. The department did not respond on the record to Playbook after four days of requests. In the absence of any kind of publicly stated rationale, Shatalov's claims go unchallenged. "You read some of these judicial review applications, and you'd be tempted to think that the person was a saint rather than what they're accused of being," says Pellerin, who reserved judgment on the merits of Shatalov's claims in court filings. — A quiet resolution: Shatalov's lawyers ultimately made a persuasive case. An order-in-council dated Oct. 6 wiped his name from a sanctions list that still includes more than 1,400 individuals and nearly 500 entities. The court proceedings were discontinued Oct. 10 by mutual agreement of Shatalov and the Department of Justice. In other words, both sides agreed to drop the case. Shatalov's lawyers at the firm Tereposky & DeRose, who represent two other Russians challenging sanctions imposed against them, didn't return Playbook's request for comment. — More from POLITICO: The secret, slipshod evidence the EU uses to sanction Russian oligarchs | 
