France is pushing for EU sanctions relief for oligarch Usmanov

French diplomats want to secure the release of prisoners in Azerbaijan and make a counter deal. It is unclear what exactly this is about. Time is running out.

Dusseldorf. According to consistent media reports, France is urging EU member states to lift sanctions against Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

The planned deal to release several French citizens held in Azerbaijan stalls EU efforts to extend sanctions against around 2,600 people and entities. The measures were imposed in response to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

EU ambassadors agreed on Monday to temporarily extend the measures by a week to give more time for negotiations.

According to the Financial Times, France and Slovakia blocked a twelve-month extension on Monday as long as Usmanov was not removed from the sanctions list. If no agreement is reached by Wednesday, all other Russian citizens and companies would have been removed from the list.

French government officials did not immediately respond to media inquiries. Usmanov's press office declined to comment, and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also did not initially respond.

French diplomats had previously said the matter was a specific national security concern. Details about this are not known.

EU sanctions require the consent of all member states. This has led to measures being repeatedly weakened or entire packages of sanctions and their extension being delayed due to the demands of individual countries - often in order to enforce national interests.

The EU justifies its sanctions against Usmanov by saying that the oligarch has “particularly close ties” to Putin and is counted among the businessmen “who have been entrusted with the processing of financial flows, but whose positions depend on the will of the president.” Usmanov has rejected the EU's justification for the sanctions and has filed numerous lawsuits against the measures in several European countries.

So far, successful calls for individuals to be removed from the sanctions list have followed vetoes from Viktor Orbán's Hungary and Robert Fico's Slovakia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj criticized the possible easing of sanctions against Usmanov. “This is definitely not the time to lift sanctions and bail out Russian oligarchs,” Zelensky wrote on X.

Usmanov, 73, owns 49 percent of USM, a Russia-based investment group that controls the country's largest iron ore producer, Metalloinvest, and has a stake in telecommunications company MegaFon. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Usmanov is the seventh-richest Russian with a fortune of $16.6 billion.

The entrepreneur is best known internationally for his previous stake in the London football club Arsenal, which he sold in 2018. He was also president of the International Fencing Federation for decades and an important supporter of the sport. He finally resigned in 2024.