EU extends Russia sanctions amid dispute over delisting Usmanov

The European Union just bought itself a week to figure out something it couldn’t resolve on time: whether two Russian oligarchs should remain on its sanctions list. On September 14, EU ambassadors agreed to extend the bloc’s individual sanctions regime against Russia by a mere seven days, pushing the expiration from September 15 to September 22. The reason for the stopgap measure is a dispute over the potential delisting of Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek billionaire, and Mikhail Fridman, co-founder of Alfa Bank. Slovakia has been pushing for their removal, and France has reportedly joined the effort to delist Usmanov specifically, citing national security grounds. A sanctions regime under internal stress The EU’s individual sanctions package currently targets roughly 3,000 individuals and entities tied to Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. Those on the list face asset freezes and travel bans, tools designed to squeeze the financial networks supporting the Kremlin’s war effort. Usmanov landed on the sanctions list in 2022 due to his close ties to Vladimir Putin. Fridman, one of Russia’s most prominent banking figures, was sanctioned around the same time. Previous attem...