EU Deadlock Over Oligarch Sanctions Relief as Renewal Deadline Approaches

• The EU faces a standoff over the extension of Russian sanctions.
• Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman may be removed from the blacklist.

BRUSSELS: The European Union struggled Tuesday to resolve a diplomatic impasse between France and Latvia that is blocking an agreement to prolong sanctions on Russia, after Riga resisted a deal to delist two prominent oligarchs.

The 27-member bloc appeared poised to lift asset freezes and visa bans on Russian businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman following pressure from France, Luxembourg, and Slovakia. The concession was part of a compromise to extend sanctions on nearly 3,000 other individuals and entities linked to the war in Ukraine for three more years, ahead of a deadline that would see the measures lapse at 2200 GMT Tuesday.

However, the agreement hit a last-minute obstacle when Latvia lodged a formal objection late Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Latvia for “keeping up the legal front against the war of aggression against Ukraine.”

“Every crime against peaceful Ukrainians has a name. And as long as this war continues, these names must be on the sanctions lists,” Zelensky wrote online.

EU ambassadors were scheduled to resume talks at 1400 GMT to weigh their options, with neither France nor Latvia showing signs of backing down in a high-stakes game of diplomatic brinkmanship. Officials insist there is broad consensus that the bloc’s sanctions regime must not be allowed to expire; diplomats indicated Riga has proposed a two-week extension if a deal cannot be reached Tuesday.

Member states have haggled for days over a path forward after France joined Slovakia in demanding the removal of Russian-Uzbek billionaire Usmanov from the blacklist. Luxembourg then leveraged the French demand to argue that sanctions on Fridman should also be lifted.

Paris has cited “national security” concerns to justify its request regarding Usmanov but has publicly refused to elaborate. A senior diplomat in Brussels told AFP that France linked the demand to a potential prisoner-release deal involving French nationals held in Azerbaijan.

Luxembourg has pushed for Fridman’s delisting as he pursues a 15 billion euro ($17 billion) lawsuit against the country for freezing his assets under EU sanctions. The French intervention in particular has angered other member states, who argue that removing individuals for political reasons sets a dangerous precedent.

“It really sends the signal that you can blackmail your way to delisting,” said one EU diplomat on condition of anonymity. “It’s shocking that France is the one blocking it all.”

The Kremlin seized on the EU’s internal division to endorse the delisting of Usmanov and Fridman, urging the bloc to lift sanctions on “all Russian businessmen.”

Need for Stability

As the deadline approached, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged member states Monday to maintain the sanctions imposed on Moscow. “Sanctions are a core pillar of our response to Russia’s war,” she told reporters in New York following a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “We need to have this stability.”

To appease those opposed to the delisting, the compromise on offer in Brussels would lock in sanctions for the next three years—a significant shift from the previous six-month renewal cycles.

The EU’s sanctions blacklist includes key figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Metals tycoon Usmanov and banking magnate Fridman are among dozens of Russian businessmen challenging the sanctions in court. Both were added to the list shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine over allegations that their businesses provided substantial revenue to the Kremlin.

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