EU extends sanctions on Russian oligarchs, overcoming resistance from two countries - Bloomberg

According to well-informed sources, an agreement to extend the
sanctions for six months were reached after three names were removed from the list at Budapest’s request.

Luxembourg applied last-minute pressure to remove tycoon Mikhail Fridman from the list, but he will remain under sanctions, sources said on condition of anonymity.

Such extensions, linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, had been largely routine for years. However, Hungary began blocking them after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election in November.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a pro-Russian politician and close ally of Trump, created issues regarding the expansion of sanctions against Russia earlier this year before ultimately backing down at the last minute. This time, Hungary initially insisted on removing eight names from the sanctions list, including Fridman.

Fridman is one of Russia’s most well-known businessmen, having made billions in banking, oil, and retail. He and his business partner Petr Aven scored an unexpected legal victory in April 2023, when the EU General Court ruled that the bloc had mistakenly included them in the 2022 sanctions list, stating that there was insufficient evidence of their close ties to Vladimir Putin. This ruling was considered one of the most significant blows to the EU’s sanctions regime against Russia since the start of the invasion.

However, they remain under a second EU sanctions decision from 2023, due to their business activities in Russia. Latvia has appealed the first ruling in favor of the oligarchs, while Fridman and Aven are challenging the second sanctions decision.

In Ukraine, Fridman and Aven previously owned Alfa-Bank, which was renamed Sense Bank after the war began and was later nationalized. The financial facility is among Ukraine’s top ten largest banks.