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Why did EU ambassadors fail to agree before the Sept. 22 midnight deadline on extending for three years sanctions against nearly 3,000 Russia linked people and entities, what compromise involving the 2022 listed oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman was proposed, why did
EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three year renewal of restrictions on roughly 3,000 ot Talks were to resume Tuesday morning, only hours before the legal deadline....
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Key takeaways
- EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three year renewal of restrictions on roughly 3,000 ot
- Talks were to resume Tuesday morning, only hours before the legal deadline.
- [14] The proposed bargain Usmanov and Fridman—both first listed in 2022—would have been fully delisted, while the asset freezes and travel bans on the remaining nearly 3,000 listed individuals and entities would be extended for 36 months, r
- [14] Alternatives, including lifting only their travel bans while retaining asset freezes, reportedly failed to win consensus.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: Why did EU ambassadors fail to agree before the Sept. 22 midnight deadline on extending for three years sanctions against nearly 3,000 Russi. Article summary: EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three year renewal of restrictions. Topic tags: general web, security, regulation, finance, data. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, ch
EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade-off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three-year renewal of restrictions on roughly 3,000 other Russia-linked people and entities. Talks were to resume Tuesday morning, only hours before the legal deadline. 14
The proposed bargain
- Usmanov and Fridman—both first listed in 2022—would have been fully delisted, while the asset freezes and travel bans on the remaining nearly 3,000 listed individuals and entities would be extended for 36 months, rather than the customary six- or 12-month rollover.
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- Alternatives, including lifting only their travel bans while retaining asset freezes, reportedly failed to win consensus.
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- The three-year term was itself part of the inducement: the next renewal would be deferred until autumn 2029.
Why France, Slovakia and Luxembourg backed delisting
- Slovakia had used its veto leverage to press for the removal of Usmanov and Fridman; it had previously sought shorter renewals rather than political delistings.
- France sought Usmanov’s removal amid indications that Azerbaijan could release two detained French nationals if he were delisted. Azerbaijan rejected the characterization that it had pressured Paris, so this should be treated as a reported diplomatic linkage rather than an established fact.
- Luxembourg sought Fridman’s removal after Usmanov’s proposed delisting. Reports linked Luxembourg’s interest to Fridman’s approximately $16 billion arbitration claim against it, but the evidence supplied here does not independently substantiate that motive.
- Both men challenged their EU listings. Usmanov’s delisting cases failed in 2024 and 2025, while Fridman won a 2024 case concerning the earlier 2022–23 rationale but remained listed after the EU updated its grounds and evidence.
Why Latvia stopped the agreement
- Latvia was the sole remaining holdout late on September 21 and objected because the compromise would weaken, rather than strengthen, pressure on Russia. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said Latvia’s position was that EU sanctions “must be strengthened, not weakened.”
- Latvia’s objection meant the package could not pass: targeted individual sanctions require approval by all 27 EU members.
What would lapse—and what would not
- The September 15 impasse had been handled with only a seven-day technical extension through September 22. If unanimity still was not achieved by the deadline, the entire individual-listing regime—asset freezes and travel bans covering nearly 3,000 people and entities—risked expiring.
- The lapse would not affect the EU’s separate sectoral economic sanctions against Russia.
Reactions before the Tuesday talks
- Kaja Kallas urged member states to maintain the Russia sanctions and said officials aimed to conclude the rollover talks quickly.
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- Ukrainian officials publicly opposed delisting either oligarch; Ukraine’s foreign minister said nothing had changed to justify it and that delisting would send Moscow the wrong signal.
- The supplied evidence does not provide sufficiently reliable, specific statements from Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi or Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys. Their precise responses cannot be confirmed from the material available.
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EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three year renewal of restrictions on roughly 3,000 ot
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EU ambassadors missed agreement because unanimity was required and Latvia refused the proposed trade off: remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist in exchange for a three year renewal of restrictions on roughly 3,000 ot Talks were to resume Tuesday morning, only hours before the legal deadline.
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[14] The proposed bargain Usmanov and Fridman—both first listed in 2022—would have been fully delisted, while the asset freezes and travel bans on the remaining nearly 3,000 listed individuals and entities would be extended for 36 months, r