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The EU will remove four Russian nationals from its sanctions list after Hungary threatened to block the renewal of restrictions targeting more than 2,000 other individuals, according to people briefed on the decision.
At the request of Hungary, Brussels will remove Gulbahor Ismailova, the sister of Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, Russian oligarch Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor and Russian politician Mikhail Degtyaryov, three officials told the Financial Times.
Russian businessman Vladimir Rashevsky will also be removed from the list, but this was a request of all European countries for legal reasons, two of the officials added.
Budapest’s main request for oligarch Mikhail Fridman and his longtime business partner Petr Aven to be removed from the sanctions list was not agreed.
The European sanctions of some 2,400 Russian and Belarusian officials, politicians and businessmen who supported or facilitated the war in Ukraine have to be renewed every six months.
That rollover is subject to unanimous approval of EU’s 27 governments, which gives Budapest veto power over travel restrictions and asset freeze orders. The individual sanctions would have expired on Saturday.
“We had to make a call, and ultimately 2,000 people was worth more to the other capitals than three,” said one of the officials.
