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The EU has agreed to remove two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list, while extending restrictions on nearly 3,000 individuals and companies accused of supporting the war on Ukraine for the next three years.
With an end-of-Tuesday deadline looming to preserve the Russia blacklist, the EU’s 27 member states found a compromise that meant delisting the two oligarchs in spite of very few countries wanting this outcome. EU sanctions have to be approved unanimously.
France stunned and infuriated EU governments this month when it called for Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek national, to be removed from the list on “national security” grounds, reported to refer to a prisoner exchange deal involving French nationals and Azerbaijan.
Luxembourg then asked for the same treatment for Fridman, the Russian-Israeli magnate, who is suing the Grand Duchy for $16bn (£12bn) for freezing his assets.
The exemptions angered many EU countries that believe it sets a bad precedent by allowing member states to weaken sanctions in defence of national interests.
Ukraine criticised the removal of the men from the sanctions list as unacceptable. Shortly after the decision emerged, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on social media: “No name on the sanctions list is there by accident: each one represents a reason why this war started and continues to this day”.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called the decision “shameful and unjustifiable” on X. “Moscow is celebrating because it got what it wanted: a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans,” he added.
In order to enable the delistings that many EU member states found unpalatable, it was proposed that the sanctions be rolled over for 36 months, rather than the usual six.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s EU presidency, which brokered the talks, said the bloc had reached “a difficult compromise”. They said: “Until now, these listings have been reviewed and assessed on a six-monthly basis; today’s decision to renew on a 36-month basis enhances the durability and predictability of the EU sanctions framework.”
A decision had been expected earlier this week, but Latvia’s government, facing parliamentary elections on 3 October, announced a last-minute objection to the delistings on Monday. Latvia’s prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, said late on Monday night that he could not accept the proposed compromise and instructed his foreign minister to enter talks with Paris and Brussels to find a solution.
Diplomats said Latvia had finally agreed to abstain on the two delistings. The blacklist includes Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as well as Duma deputies, the country’s major banks, energy companies and military industrial complex.
Senior EU officials have promised to present about 1,600 new designations – individuals and entities involved in the Russian military industrial complex – to foreign ministers next month. But the latest standoff, which followed the tortuous agreement on the EU’s 21st round of sanctions in July, suggests the process could be difficult.
