The EU agrees to delist two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list, while extending sanctions on nearly 3,000 other individuals and entities linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The decision is reached as member states face an end-of-Tuesday deadline connected to maintaining the wider sanctions regime.
Approval requires unanimity among the EU’s 27 countries, and outlets report disagreement during the talks. France 24 says EU countries failed to finalise a deal initially, with diplomats indicating that negotiations would resume after they did not complete a final agreement. The Guardian reports that, even with limited support, a compromise emerges that preserves the broader blacklist while making the delisting of the two oligarchs possible. Ireland’s EU presidency describes the outcome as a difficult compromise.
