EU drops Usmanov from sanctions list after infighting

The EU’s 27 member states have agreed to remove Russian businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from their sanctions blacklist, ending an impasse that threatened the very foundation of the bloc’s anti-Russian penalty regime.

In a deal brokered by Ireland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, the member states agreed on Tuesday to remove Usmanov and Fridman from the blacklist. In exchange, the bloc extended sanctions on roughly 3,000 other Russian and Russian-linked entities and individuals by three years instead of the usual six months.

Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek metals tycoon, was sanctioned by the EU in February 2022 over his alleged ties to the Kremlin. The EU came to this conclusion based on media reports which have been proven false by Usmanov’s legal team over a series of lawsuits, and the billionaire used these legal victories to argue that he had been sanctioned based on false evidence.

However, it was France that pushed for his delisting, having negotiated a deal in which Azerbaijan would free two French citizens – one of whom was imprisoned for espionage – in exchange for the de-sanctioning of Usmanov. A Turkic nation like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan was one of several countries that lobbied for Usmanov.

Luxembourg lobbied for the delisting of Fridman, as the duchy is currently being sued for $16 billion over its freezing of his assets in 2022. According to Reuters, Luxembourg argued that its case against Fridman would be weakened if Usmanov alone was let go.

If a deal had not been struck by midnight on Tuesday, all of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions would have expired. An agreement was reportedly reached on Monday afternoon, but Latvia intervened to prevent it taking effect. As one of the EU’s most fervent backers of Ukraine, Latvian Foreign Minister Baibe Braze argued that “EU sanctions against Russia must be strengthened, not weakened. Therefore, Latvia cannot agree to the widely proposed suggestion.”

As negotiations restarted on Tuesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky thanked Braze for “keeping up the legal front against the war of aggression against Ukraine,” and declared that Usmanov and Fridman’s names “must be on the sanctions lists.”

Ultimately, Latvia took a position of ‘constructive abstention’ and allowed the other member states to press ahead with delisting the two tycoons and renewing the remaining sanctions.

Usmanov’s delisting removes a potential legal nightmare for the EU. As RT already explored this week, the billionaire’s repeated litigation has undermined Brussels’ case against him, and an additional lawsuit against the EU threatened to expose the bloc’s secret “evidence packs” used to build the case. Several high-profile Russian businessmen have already been delisted after the shaky evidence in these packs was made public, and a legal win by Usmanov would have cast the legal rationale for sanctions into further disrepute.