Russian tech billionaire wants sanctions lifted after he criticized Ukraine invasion, report says

• A Russian oligarch called on the EU to lift sanctions against him after condemning Putin's war.
• Arkady Volozh made the call days after calling the war "barbaric," the Financial Times reported.

Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh will be the first to formally ask for sanctions to be lifted after condemning Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a report says.

The Financial Times reported that Volozh's lawyers had petitioned the European Union to repeal sanctions placed on the tech billionaire last June after he chose to criticize Putin's offensive 18 months after Russia's invasion.

It is regarded as the first test as to how the West will treat previously sanctioned oligarchs who have gone on to publicly denounce Putin's war. The bloc is expected to discuss the request next month, the newspaper reported.

The request by Volozh's lawyers was made just days after he publicly condemned the invasion and ongoing war as "barbaric," the Financial Times reported, adding that he was personally horrified by the bombing of Ukrainian homes.

"There were reasons to stay silent during this long process," Volozh told the BBC in a statement.

"While there will anyway be questions about the timing of my statement today, there should be no questions about its essence. I am against the war."

Volozh is the co-founder and former CEO of Yandex, Russia's answer to Google. He resigned from his position in June last year shortly after he was sanctioned.

In a statement on Yandex's website, he called the decision to impose sanctions on him "misguided and ultimately counterproductive."

In their justification for the sanctions, the EU said Volozh took a leading role in sectors providing a "substantial source of revenue" to Russia.

Europe also accused Yandex of promoting state media and narratives in its search results while deranking and removing content critical of the Kremlin and its war.

Since the sanctions were imposed, Volozh's five-story townhouse in Amsterdam became the target of activists who started squatting in it. In November, a judge ruled the squatters did not have to be evicted from the property.

Volozh has lived in Israel since 2014. He's the latest of just a handful of oligarchs to criticize Putin's ongoing offensive in neighboring Ukraine.

Billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripraska had his $1 billion Sochi complex seized after criticizing the invasion, the FT reported in December.

Representatives for Volozh didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.