MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Russia’s state oil company Rosneft and businessman Arkady Rotenberg, targeted by the European Union sanctions in late July, have launched legal proceedings against the European Council.

Rosneft filed a lawsuit in the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice's General Court on October 9 against the EU sanctions that prohibit Russian energy companies and state banks from raising capital in European markets.

On the same day, Rosneft issued a tender for 17.7 million British pounds (about $28.44 million) seeking legal services of UK lawyers in challenging the economic sanctions. The services are to be provided over five years until 2019.

Rotenberg, a co-owner and chairman of board of directors of SMP Bank, who was slapped with an EU visa ban on July 30, filed two lawsuits against the sanctions on October 10 in the same court.

In late September, Italian authorities arrested several houses on the island of Sardinia, a hotel in Rome, shares and banking accounts belonging to Rotenberg and totaling 30 million euros.

The European Union has imposed sectoral sanctions against Russia, targeting Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Transneft and also five Russian state banks and in particular banning them from taking loans in the EU for longer than 30 days.

Since March, the EU has imposed nine packages of sanctions on Russia amid the Ukrainian crisis, including banning equipment and know-how supplies to the country’s oil sector and freezing EU assets of 119 Russian and Ukrainian officials and barring them from entering the union.