EU envoys extend Russia sanctions by seven days to debate six-month renewal, EU presidency says
EU states extended the blacklist by 7 days after France and Slovakia opposed renewing sanctions on Alisher Usmanov, a billionaire worth $18.8 billion.
- On Monday, EU ambassadors in Brussels extended the Russia sanctions list by seven days until September 22 after failing to agree on a six-month renewal, following France and Slovakia's push to delist Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
- The EU sanctioned the 73-year-old Russian-Uzbek billionaire in 2022, citing 'particularly close ties' to President Vladimir Putin and his role consolidating Kremlin control over media assets including VK and Kommersant.
- France cited an unspecified 'national security issue' and requests from 'international partners'—potentially Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan—to justify its position, causing 'huge frustration' among other European governments.
- Italy and Croatia have since backed the push to delist the billionaire, reportedly as a compromise to secure renewal of the broader sanctions regime, which requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states.
- This one-week extension marks an unprecedented delay since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with member states facing a critical September 22 deadline to resolve the stalemate or risk the entire sanctions list lapsing.
73 Articles
73 Articles
Victor Orban can no longer block Russia sanctions in the EU - others are doing so now. The extension of an extensive package of measures threatens to fail due to the resistance of two countries. They want to remove a certain oligarch from the sanction list.
The sanctions imposed after the Russian full invasion in Ukraine must be unanimously extended by the EU countries every six months.
France is putting pressure on the States of the European Union to lift the sanctions imposed on the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov, close to Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to obtain the release of several French citizens detained in Azerbaijan. Paris is thus resorting to a tactic used by Viktor Orban, conditional on its agreement to extend the sanctions for Usmanov's removal from the list of persons and entities concerned by restrictive m…
France persuades the EU countries to lift sanctions against billionaire Alisher Usmanov in order to free several of their gras...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Europe to step up pressure on Russia through sanctions after the European Union failed to reach an agreement to renew punitive measures against Moscow. Zelensky said it was “not time for Europe to forget what is happening” in Ukraine, in a response that appeared to be a direct reference to the EU’s delay in extending sanctions against Russia. In a post on the X platform, the Ukrainian presiden…
La Dépêche du Midi
cedarnews.netIn Brussels, France is blocking the process of renewing sanctions against Russia because Paris wants the oligarch Alicher Ousmanov to escape it. The reason would be to find in the framework of an agreement...
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