Billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman are freed from EU sanctions

European Union governments have preliminarily agreed to lift sanctions on Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, in exchange for keeping nearly 3,000 other Russians and Russian companies under sanctions for the next three years.

The length of that renewal is what the bloc bought. Sanctions currently have to be renewed every six months, and each renewal needs the agreement of all 27 governments, which gives every one of them a veto. Hungary has used it repeatedly to extract concessions. Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency, said the decision will be formally signed off shortly. "In maintaining the regime we have reached a difficult compromise," a spokesperson said.

Latvia fought the delistings and then stood aside. Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs led a last-minute effort to stop them before abstaining on the final vote, and said afterwards that the choice had not been between a good solution and a bad one, but between a bad solution and a much worse one.

He came away with something. Kulbergs said he had secured commitments from France to strengthen its military presence in Latvia by supplying air defences, and to open talks on including Latvia in France's nuclear deterrence arrangements, after speaking to President Emmanuel Macron and Ireland's Micheál Martin. The sanctions question had become an issue in Latvia's parliamentary election on Oct. 3.

France wanted Usmanov delisted as part of a possible arrangement with Azerbaijan to free French nationals held there, Bloomberg reported.

Usmanov, 73, is the seventh-richest person in Russia, worth $16.7 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He owns 49% of USM, the investment group that controls Metalloinvest, Russia's largest iron ore producer, and holds a stake in the mobile operator MegaFon. He was born in Uzbekistan, where he is an honorary citizen, and holds Russian citizenship.

He is not regarded as one of Vladimir Putin's closest associates, though decades in Russian business have given him extensive connections across the political and business establishment, including inside the Kremlin. Outside Russia he is best known for his investment in Arsenal, which he exited in 2018, and he has spent decades as president of the International Fencing Federation. His connections to France are less obvious. A spokesman declined to comment.

Luxembourg then demanded Fridman's removal, because he is pursuing a claim against the country at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. It moved only after France raised Usmanov.

Fridman, 62, is the 14th-richest Russian with a fortune of about $10 billion. He co-founded the investment group behind Alfa Bank and LetterOne, holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, and moved to London in 2013 after he and his partners sold their stake in the oil producer TNK-BP to the state-controlled Rosneft for $14 billion. He left Britain after being sanctioned, and declined to comment.

Both men were sanctioned in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which froze their assets in the bloc and barred them from travelling there. Ukraine has called the decision unacceptable.

The trade has angered the EU's strongest supporters of Ukraine, who argue that national interests keep blocking further pressure on Russia. The bloc already weakened a major sanctions package this year over concerns about the damage to European industry, and agreed earlier in 2026 to extend the measures covering fuel, military-use goods and banking services for a full year.