Russia state oil company Rosneft is challenging the EU sanctions in court ©Reuters Russia is taking the EU to court over sanctions imposed on some of its biggest companies. The move is a sign of the pain that the companies’ exclusion from global capital markets is inflicting on the Russian economy . Rosneft , the state oil company, and Arkady Rotenberg, a long-time friend and former judo sparring partner of President Vladimir Putin , have both launched legal challenges to the sanctions, imposed over Russia’s actions in Ukraine . The EU bans, with similar measures adopted by the US, have all but frozen Russian companies and banks out of western capital markets, at a time when they have to refinance more than $130bn of foreign debt due for redemption by the end of 2015. Rosneft filed a case against the EU’s European Council in the general court under the […]