France Pushed Through Decision to Lift Sanctions on Usmanov and Fridman
EU ambassadors on September 21 preliminarily agreed to lift sanctions on Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman. As reported by Reuters, citing several European diplomats, the agreement will come into force if no EU government objects to this decision within the next few hours, writes The Moscow Times.
The lifting of restrictions was part of a broader agreement to extend sanctions against thousands of other Russian individuals and entities for three years. Usually, various sanction measures are extended for six or twelve months.
The final decision on extending approximately 3000 sanctions against Russia is to be made by Tuesday. However, last week France unexpectedly joined Slovakia, which advocated for Usmanov's exclusion from the EU sanctions list. The billionaire has been trying to lift the restrictions for several years through his lobbyists in various countries.
Luxembourg, in turn, drew attention to the situation surrounding Mikhail Fridman, who filed a lawsuit against this country in connection with the freezing of his assets. Luxembourg stated that its position in the lawsuit could become weaker if sanctions were lifted only from Usmanov.
France did not publicly or privately explain its motives, stating only that the issue was related to a "specific national security concern." Politico reported that the decision might have been part of a possible agreement under which Azerbaijan would release detained French citizens. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev denied this and stated that Baku had previously advocated for Usmanov's exclusion from the sanctions list. Usmanov was born in Uzbekistan.
According to information from three European diplomats, France urged the EU to lift sanctions on Usmanov after Azerbaijan detained at least two French citizens. After this, Baku allegedly began to pressure Paris on the issue of sanctions against Usmanov. A high-ranking Azerbaijani diplomat denied this information in a conversation with Reuters.
Usmanov himself used various channels to fight European sanctions. For example, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sought help on this matter from his former Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó.
In the spring, it became known from leaked telephone conversations between ministers that Lavrov asked Szijjártó to help exclude Usmanov's sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, from the sanctions list. Szijjártó promised to raise this issue for discussion together with Slovakia next week as part of the sanctions extension process. In response, Lavrov said that Usmanov would be very pleased with this.
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