A diplomatic source has told RTL that Luxembourg was not the originator of the request to amend the EU's sanctions list targeting Russian individuals and entities. The source added that Luxembourg would have accepted an unchanged extension of the current list.
Negotiations are ongoing in Brussels over extending sanctions imposed on Russian interests in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The current EU sanctions list, which names more than 3,000 individuals and entities with links to the Kremlin, is set to expire at midnight on Wednesday.
Renewal of the sanctions list requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states. Talks have stalled for several days after France, Slovakia, and Luxembourg reportedly requested the removal of Russian business figures Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the list, according to international media reports.
As a potential compromise, some have proposed extending the list for 36 months – rather than the usual six to twelve – without including the two businessmen. However, Latvia has strongly opposed this solution, insisting that sanctions against Russia should be strengthened, not weakened. The Latvian Foreign Minister reiterated this stance on X.
According to the diplomatic source, it was France’s request to delist Alisher Usmanov that left Luxembourg with no choice but to also request the removal of Mikhail Fridman.
The State Ministry has declined to comment on either the negotiations or Luxembourg’s official position. Nonetheless, the stance can be summarised as favouring a solution where either both billionaires remain on the list or both are removed.
Mikhail Fridman is suing Luxembourg for $16 billion in damages after his assets in the country were frozen. The case is currently before an arbitration court in Hong Kong.
Fridman and his business partner, Petr Aven – who holds both Russian and Latvian citizenship – were added to the EU sanctions list in February 2022. They challenged their inclusion before the General Court of the European Union in Kirchberg and won their case in April 2024, with the court ruling that the Council of the European Union had not sufficiently justified their listing.
In a separate case a year earlier, the same court found that Alisher Usmanov had been correctly included on the sanctions list.
