EU to exclude businessmen Gutseriev and Shevtsov from Belarusian sanctions list
EU country ambassadors are expected to agree on October 7 to remove Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev and Belarusian entrepreneur Viktor Shevtsov from the "Belarusian" sanctions list.
The preparation of the decision is reported by Rikard Jozwiak, Brussels correspondent for Radio Svoboda, citing diplomatic sources.
Radio Svoboda sources link this move to the businessmen's victories in EU courts. According to them, the EU considers the legal grounds for maintaining these sanctions to be weak.
However, exclusion from the Belarusian list will not mean a complete lifting of EU sanctions on Gutseriev. On July 23, 2026, he was included in a separate list related to Russian aggression against Ukraine. The EU Council justified this by his activities in sectors of the Russian economy that generate significant revenues for the Russian government, as well as his support for this government through investment projects.
Shevtsov does not appear on other lists.
Gutseriev was sanctioned by the EU on June 21, 2021. The EU Council called him a long-time friend of Alexander Lukashenka, who financially supported his regime and benefited from it.
Among the grounds mentioned were investments in Belarus, including the construction of the Nezhin Mining and Processing Plant by Slavkali, as well as Gutseriev's presence at Lukashenka's inauguration on September 23, 2020.
Viktor Shevtsov, former chairman of the supervisory board of Bank Reshenie, previously known as Infobank and Trustbank, was included in the sanctions list on August 5, 2024, when the relevant decision of the EU Council of July 26 was published.
The EU Council linked him to the production of security holograms in Belarus through the companies Technokhimtrade and Holographic Industry. According to the sanctions' justification at the time, he benefited from a monopoly artificially created by the state.
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