The European Union has removed Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from its Russia sanctions list, bowing to demands from France and Luxembourg even as most member states opposed the delistings. The compromise came hours before a Tuesday deadline that would have let the entire sanctions regime — covering nearly 3,000 individuals and entities — lapse. France triggered the crisis by invoking "national security" grounds to push for Usmanov's removal. The reported rationale: a prisoner exchange deal involving French nationals and Azerbaijan. Luxembourg then seized the opening to request Fridman's delisting, with the Russian-Israeli magnate suing the Grand Duchy for $16bn over frozen assets. Two bilateral interests, two holes in a collective framework. To make the bitter pill go down, negotiators extended the sanctions rollover period from six months to 36 months. Ireland's EU presidency, which brokered the talks, framed this as enhancing "durability and predictability." The longer timeframe reduces the frequency of these unanimous-consent standoffs — but does nothing to fix the structural vulnerability they exposed. Latvia, facing parliamentary elections on 3 October, staged a last-minute objection but ultimately agreed to abstain rather than block. The move reflects the political calculus facing smaller EU states: opposing France and Luxembourg publicly carries costs, but so does being seen at home as soft on Russia. Latvia's prime minister Andris Kulbergs instructed his foreign minister to negotiate, but the leverage was never really there. Ukraine's response was immediate and unambiguous. President Zelenskyy wrote that "no name on the sanctions list is there by accident." Foreign minister Sybiha called the decision "shameful and unjustifiable," adding that Moscow got "a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans." This is not diplomatic boilerplate — it is a direct accusation that EU members prioritized bilateral deals over collective security. The underlying structure is the problem. EU sanctions require unanimity to impose and unanimity to renew, which means any single member state holds a veto. France demonstrated that this veto can be used not just defensively but offensively — to extract concessions from the entire bloc. The precedent is clear: bilateral grievances can now be stapled to sanctions renewals as leverage. Senior EU officials have promised roughly 1,600 new sanctions designations next month targeting Russia's military industrial complex. But the July standoff over the 21st sanctions round already showed the process was straining. Each renewal now becomes a negotiation surface where member states can attach unrelated demands. The sanctions regime remains in place for now — the blacklist still covers Putin, Lavrov, major banks, and energy companies — but the mechanism for maintaining it has been visibly weakened.
