BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (Reuters) – European Union envoys agreed on Monday to lift sanctions imposed over Russia’s war in Ukraine on businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman as long as no EU government objected to the move within the next few hours, diplomats said.
The agreement by ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries came as part of a package deal to renew sanctions on thousands of other Russian individuals and entities for three years – much longer than usual rollover periods of six or 12 months – the diplomats said.
To the surprise and anger of some EU countries, France this month joined Slovakia in pushing for the removal of Russian-Uzbek billionaire Usmanov from the sanctions list. Luxembourg then demanded the removal of Fridman, a Russian, according to diplomats.
France urged the EU to lift sanctions on Usmanov after coming under what it said was pressure from Azerbaijan, which has detained at least two French nationals, three European diplomats told Reuters last week. A senior Azerbaijani diplomat on Friday rejected those assertions.
France has not publicly confirmed that it has pushed to lift EU sanctions – which involve a ban on travel to the bloc and a freeze on assets held in the EU – on Usmanov.
The EU imposed sanctions on both men in 2022. In sanctioning Usmanov, the EU described him as having “particularly close ties” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fridman is claiming $16 billion from Luxembourg in a case that has gone to arbitration. EU diplomats said Luxembourg argued that its case to maintain EU sanctions on Fridman could be weakened if Usmanov were to be delisted alone.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray, Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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