EU Sanctions Rollover: Locked Until 2029 — But the Oligarch Delisting Deal's Cost Is Now Visible

EU Sanctions Rollover: Locked Until 2029 — But the Oligarch Delisting Deal's Cost Is Now Visible

UPDATE (Sept 24, 2026): the rollover is formally done — the Council extended listings on ~3,000 individuals and entities until September 22, 2029, hours before the midnight lapse — and the political cost of the Usmanov/Fridman delisting is surfacing fast.

The Council of the EU formally extended the measures on some 3,000 individuals and entities until September 22, 2029, hours before they were due to lapse at midnight — delisting three individuals (Usmanov, Fridman, and Andrey Falaleev, a former rector of Crimea Federal University, for whom no reason was given) and one entity (bne IntelliNews).

The quid pro quo behind the delistings now looks transactional in the harshest light: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned jailed French citizen Martin Ryan — serving a 10-year espionage sentence — hours after the EU dropped Usmanov¹, who holds Russian and Uzbek citizenship and had been the object of a two-year Baku lobbying campaign. Paris has never confirmed it sought the delisting to free its nationals; Baku denies pressure.

The abstention map tells the story of a divided bloc: Latvia abstained — Foreign Minister Baiba Braze called the decision "unprecedented" and said "Our position was the right one on moral and strategic grounds"; PM Andris Kulbergs called it "between a bad and a much worse one" and warned of the precedent: "One by one cherry-picking out of sanctions, that is not the way to go. That is normalising Russia." Riga's price for yielding was concrete: Macron agreed to open negotiations on Latvia joining France's nuclear deterrence initiative (which already hosts French nuclear-capable aircraft arrangements with nine countries) and to strengthen France's military presence, especially air defense. Estonia also abstained and, like Latvia, will re-sanction the two men nationally; Belgium and Lithuania also committed to abstaining.

Kyiv and the Russian opposition reacted with fury. Zelenskiy raised the delistings with von der Leyen in New York: "signals about lifting sanctions on individual Russian oligarchs are self-defeating and counterproductive." Yulia Navalnaya: "If you're rich, own a couple of yachts, and have connections - sanctions can apparently be lifted from you without much hassle. Vivat, European Commission! Vivat money and Putin's oligarchs!" And the Kremlin celebrated the direction if not the scope — Peskov: "We consider these sanctions to be illegal. Sanctions should be removed from Usmanov, and Fridman, and all Russian businessmen, and all Russian citizens."