An inconvenient truth: Why the EU could lose twice to Alisher Usmanov

The bloc’s case against the tycoon was built on sand and its media industry has had to amend thousands of articles The EU is divided over a deal to un-sanction Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov.

Brussels’ allies in Kiev aren’t happy, but the alternative – a legal showdown – could call the bloc’s entire sanctions regime into question.

Ambassadors from EU member states met on Monday to discuss Usmanov’s case.

According to Euronews, France pushed for Usmanov’s removal from the blacklist, in exchange for Azerbaijan freeing two alleged French spies.

Ireland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, proposed that Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, another Russian businessman, be delisted on the condition that the EU renew its anti-Russian sanctions regime for 36 months instead of the usual six.

After a second round of talks on Monday that stretched into the night, EU envoys failed to agree to remove Usmanov and Fridman from the list.

Meaning no agreement has been reached on extending the bloc's sanctions.

Usmanov is at the centre of a discussion that could undo a central pillar of the EU's personal sanctions policy.

Why was Usmanov sanctioned? Police raid Alisher Usmanov's Tegernsee lakeside villa in Rottach-Egern, Germany, September 21, 2022 © Getty Images; Alexandra Beier A highly successful entrepreneur in the final years of the Soviet Union, the Russian-Uzbek businessman snapped up metal and mining businesses during the rapid privatization of the 1990s, breached into media with his acquisition of Russia’s Kommersant newspaper in 2006, and expanded his wealth with a series of savvy investments in Apple, Twitter, and Facebook over the following decade.

Usmanov, believed to be Russia’s seventh-richest person with a net worth of more than $16 billion, was sanctioned by the EU four days after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The EU’s sanctions ledger declared that Usmanov “has particularly close ties to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin,” has “acted on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation in a number of business deals,” and gave former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev “personal use of luxurious residences” controlled by his companies.