A Russian cargo giant has lost another legal battle in Canada, while its stranded aircraft continues to generate costs and diplomatic pressure.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Federal Court has upheld sanctions against the Russian company Volga-Dnepr and its former director. The company sought to challenge the restrictions imposed by Canada after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The court also dismissed claims related to an An-124 cargo aircraft that has been at Toronto Airport since early 2022. The aircraft belongs to Volga-Dnepr and cannot leave Canada because Canadian airspace is closed to Russian aircraft.<\/p>\n
Why the Court Did Not Lift the Sanctions<\/p>\n
During the proceedings, the Canadian government stated that Volga-Dnepr played a role in attempts by the Russian regime to circumvent sanctions imposed by Canada and its partners, including to obtain goods subject to restrictions.<\/p>\n
The judge agreed with the Canadian side\u2019s arguments and concluded that the company had failed to prove that the sanctions decision was unreasonable or that procedural fairness had been violated in adopting it.<\/p>\n
Seized An-124 in Toronto<\/p>\n
The An-124 arrived in Toronto shortly before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After Canada closed its airspace to Russian aviation, the aircraft remained at Toronto Pearson International Airport.<\/p>\n
In 2023, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the confiscation of the Russian aircraft and the launch of proceedings to transfer it to Ukraine. During its stay at the airport, the An-124 accumulated a debt to the airport exceeding one million dollars.<\/p>\n
The Russian Company\u2019s Demands<\/p>\n
Volga-Dnepr insisted that it had not transported military cargo since 2018 and repeatedly demanded that the sanctions and restrictions on the aircraft be lifted. If its request were ultimately denied, the company said it intended to seek US$100 million in compensation from Canada.<\/p>\n
Canada was the first G7 country to adopt legislation allowing the confiscation of assets belonging to Russian companies included on sanctions lists. The Federal Court\u2019s decision keeps the restrictions on Volga-Dnepr and the seized An-124 in force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Russian cargo giant has lost another legal battle in Canada, while its stranded aircraft continues to generate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[55160,17,55161,55159,116,55162,55163,49577,53756],"class_list":["post-172973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-an-124-aircraft","tag-canada","tag-canada-russia-sanctions","tag-canada-russia-sanctions-volga-dnepr-an-124-aircraft-toronto-airport-russian-assets-sanctions-enforcement","tag-news","tag-russian-assets","tag-sanctions-enforcement","tag-toronto-airport","tag-volga-dnepr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}