Four sanctioned Russians will see their restrictions relaxed as part of a compromise.
BRUSSELS — The EU on Friday saved its sanctions on Russian oligarchs, military chiefs, energy bosses and the Moscow elite from collapsing after striking an 11th-hour deal with Hungary, which had threatened to veto the whole framework.
As part of the deal, the EU removed four individuals from its sanctions list, relaxing the restrictions on their finance and travel rights, according to four diplomats with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO. Without the compromise, the entire list of more than 2,000 individuals and entities would have expired on Saturday night.
The four individuals Hungary got removed on Friday are banker and chemicals industry chief Vladimir Rashevsky; Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of Uzbek-Russian mining tycoon Alisher Usmanov; Israeli-British-Russian businessman Viatcheslav Kantor; and Russian Sports Minister and Olympics chief Mikhail Degtyarov.
The EU’s Russia sanctions must be renewed every six months, requiring consent from all 27 countries. In recent months, Hungary has consistently threatened to torch the sanctions every time one component comes up for renewal, pointing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing ceasefire talks over the war in Ukraine.
“The Hungarians say, ‘Look, it looks like Trump is going to make a peace deal,’” said one EU diplomat, granted anonymity to speak freely about the sensitive negotiations. “But for us there’s not even the beginning of the conditions where we would contemplate lifting sanctions.”
