The European Union on Friday renewed its sanctions on nearly 2,400 individuals and entities listed in connection to Russia’s war in Ukraine until Sept. 15, after reaching a compromise with Hungary to delist three Russian nationals.
The measures involve asset freezes and bans on making funds or other economic resources available to sanctioned actors. Sanctioned individuals also are subject to travel restrictions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the EU leader closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had threatened this week to veto the sanctions renewal unless names were removed. Hungary and Slovakia previously threatened to tank the EU’s separate extension of Russian economic sanctions in January, though they ultimately yielded.
What to know: Hungary initially had pushed to remove eight individuals from the EU’s Russian sanctions list, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who founded and were on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium, a Russian conglomerate that owns companies across Europe.
The EU refused to remove Fridman and Aven from the list, but agreed to delist three people per Hungary’s proposal:
What’s next: The EU renews its two main sanctions packages on Russia in separate cycles every six months. Its economic sanctions—which affect trade and the provision of certain services, including in the financial and transportation industries—would be next up, in July.
The EU’s press release Friday ended by stating that it “remains ready to step up pressure on Russia, including by adopting further sanctions.”
But ongoing peace negotiations, and increasingly vocal opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, could scramble the outlook.
Read more on Russian sanctions:
The measures involve asset freezes and bans on making funds or other economic resources available to sanctioned actors. Sanctioned individuals also are subject to travel restrictions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the EU leader closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had threatened this week to veto the sanctions renewal unless names were removed. Hungary and Slovakia previously threatened to tank the EU’s separate extension of Russian economic sanctions in January, though they ultimately yielded.
What to know: Hungary initially had pushed to remove eight individuals from the EU’s Russian sanctions list, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who founded and were on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium, a Russian conglomerate that owns companies across Europe.
The EU refused to remove Fridman and Aven from the list, but agreed to delist three people per Hungary’s proposal:
- Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek businessman. Ismailova remains sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and Japan.
- Viatcheslav Kantor, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin whom the EU sanctioned in 2022. Kantor is still sanctioned by the U.K.
- Mikhail Degtyarev, the Russian Minister of Sports and former legislator in the State Duma. The EU sanctioned Degtyarev in 2014, after he announced the inauguration of the “de facto embassy” of the unrecognized so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” in Moscow. He remains sanctioned by the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.
What’s next: The EU renews its two main sanctions packages on Russia in separate cycles every six months. Its economic sanctions—which affect trade and the provision of certain services, including in the financial and transportation industries—would be next up, in July.
The EU’s press release Friday ended by stating that it “remains ready to step up pressure on Russia, including by adopting further sanctions.”
But ongoing peace negotiations, and increasingly vocal opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, could scramble the outlook.
Read more on Russian sanctions:
