Radio Svoboda reported that ambassadors of EU countries agreed to extend sanctions against about 3,000 people and organizations linked to Russian aggression against Ukraine; this includes sanctions against Vladimir Putin.
The measures are to be extended not for six months, as usual, but for three years at once. The extension of the sanctions has not yet been officially announced, but it is expected that the so-called written procedure will be carried out this evening, and if none of the countries objects in the near future, the decision will enter into force.
If the ambassadors had not reached an agreement, the sanctions would have expired at midnight on September 22; last week they were already extended by seven days. Under the compromise, Russian businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman are to be excluded from the sanctions list.
France and Slovakia pushed for Usmanov to be removed, and Slovakia also advocated lifting sanctions on Fridman. Paris refused to explain its motives and referred to a “specific national security issue”; the Financial Times wrote that easing restrictions on Usmanov could be part of an agreement with Azerbaijan after the detention of two French citizens, but official Baku denies this.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha opposed lifting sanctions on Usmanov and Fridman, saying that nothing has changed since they were imposed and that such a step would send the wrong signal to Moscow. Usmanov and Fridman were added to the sanctions lists as major businessmen close to Vladimir Putin and involved in financing the war against Ukraine; both are challenging the sanctions in court.
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