The agreement was greatly delayed when the EU's 27 countries agreed at the last minute to extend the sanctions package against over 3,000 Russia-linked individuals and organizations on Tuesday. Instead of a customary extension of 12 months, it became 36.
"No name on the sanctions list is there by chance: each name represents a reason why this war broke out and is still going on, and why our people are being killed every day," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy writes on X. His equally outraged Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha calls the decision shameful and indefensible: "Moscow is celebrating because it got what it wanted: a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU and division among Europeans."
The three times longer validity period is part of a compromise to remove three people from the list, including the wealthy businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, a Russian-Uzbek and Russian-Israeli respectively who are close to Putin. Slovakia was early, in mid-March, demanding to free Usmanov from the blacklist without giving formal reasons.
Instead, a two-page letter purported to be from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Slovak Prime Minister Roberto Fico earlier in March has raised suspicions of corruption or undue pressure. "Your support to remove him from the EU's sanctions list... would be extremely valuable," the letter says, and it appears that Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan would also be grateful.
Two weeks ago, France also joined the demand, first without giving reasons and then with the vaguely stated "national security". Diplomatic sources told AFP that the French demand could be linked to a desired return in the form of the release of two French citizens recently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. On Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev very correctly announced the release of espionage suspect Martin Ryan.
As for Michail Fridman, Hungary was the first to insist that he be removed from the sanctions package, but that demand was dropped after the change of power in Budapest. Instead, it is Luxembourg that in recent weeks has pushed the demand against the backdrop of Fridman suing the Grand Duchy for the equivalent of SEK 160 billion because it froze his assets.
The 73-year-old metal magnate Alisher Usmanov has been called "Putin's wallet" and has been under sanctions by the EU, the UK and the US since 2022. He has "extremely close ties" to the Russian president, the EU said at the time, and has "acted as a cover for Putin and solved his business problems".
The 72-year-old investment billionaire Michail Fridman, with his Jewish background, had limited opportunities in the Soviet Union, but when the Cold War was replaced by glasnost and perestroika, his career as a businessman began. As early as 1991, he founded Alfa-Bank, for a long time Russia's largest private bank, and eventually several other giant companies in, among other things, retail, telecoms and energy.
In connection with the 2022 sanctions, the EU wrote that Fridman "succeeded in establishing strong ties to Putin's administration" and was described as a driving force in the Kremlin's inner circle. "He exchanges favors with Putin in exchange for political support for his business and financial gains."
Several EU countries have objected to the removal of the oligarchs Usmanov and Fridman from the sanctions package, but Latvia has been at the forefront and in the end the country stood alone. Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs says he is surprised that at least Estonia and Lithuania did not remain in the resistance - now the choice was between removing two or scrapping the whole package.
- It was not about a choice between a good and a bad solution, but between a bad one and an even worse one, Kulbergs says in a statement that Latvia is now imposing its own sanctions against Usmanov and Fridman.
