EU extends sanctions against Russia, but excludes several individuals at Hungary's request

EU extends sanctions against Russia until 15 September, photo: detector.media

The European Union has extended sanctions against 2,400 Russian individuals and entities until 15 September in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. However, Hungary agreed to support this decision only in exchange for the removal of several individuals from the sanctions list.

This was reported by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Reuters.

Budapest had threatened to block the renewal of sanctions, demanding that nine individuals, including Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, be removed from the list. However, according to Reuters' diplomatic sources, only three people were eventually removed from the list:

• Gulbahor Ismailova, the sister of businessman Alisher Usmanov;
• Vyacheslav Kantor, a businessman;
• Mikhail Degtyarev, Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation.

In addition, the sanctions were not extended against Vladimir Rashevsky, the former head of «Eurochem», not because of Hungarian pressure, but because of the weak legal evidence base. Three more individuals will be removed from the list due to their deaths.

As a reminder, in February this year, the US extended sanctions against Russia for another year over its military aggression in Ukraine. The White House document states that Russia's policy towards Ukraine «undermines democratic processes, threatens its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity».