The European Union is set to remove Russian businessman Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, the country’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyaryov and Gulbahor Ismailova, the sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov from its sanctions list.
The decision is expected to be formally announced on March 14 during a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels.
The move comes after days of stalemate in Brussels, in which Hungary, backed by Slovakia, was threatening not to green-light the six-month rollover of the bloc’s asset freezes and visa bans slapped on more than 2,400 mostly Russian companies and individuals since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
The list includes figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as several oligarchs and businessmen accused of bankrolling or benefiting from the Kremlin’s war effort.
EU diplomats have told RFE/RL that Hungary has grown more confident in pushing for the removal of some names from the list, because the United States is now in direct contact with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and has floated the idea of potentially easing sanctions on Moscow in exchange for peace.
Budapest was initially asking for eight people to be delisted -- the three above plus other businessmen, such as Dmitry Mazepin, Alisher Usmanov, Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Musa Bazhaev. However, the 27 member states reached a compromise late on March 13 in Brussels, agreeing that only some of the names will be delisted in exchange for an extension of the sanctions for everyone else -- a move that requires unanimity.
Additionally, businessman Vladimir Rashevsky, considered a "weak case" in Brussels after successfully challenging his sanctions in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), will also be delisted.
Hungary’s Leverage
The twice-yearly rollover measures, which come up for extension in mid-March and mid-September, are now set to be prolonged again ahead of the deadline on March 15.
Hungary has leveraged this veto threat at pretty much every opportunity to get people delisted. And since last year, they have been joined in this endeavor by Slovakia, which largely shares Budapest’s Moscow-friendly stance.
In 2024, those removed from the list included Arkady Volozh, co-founder of the Russian Internet giant Yandex; Russian businessman Sergei Mndoiants; Jozef Hambalek, a Slovak national and head of the Russian nationalist Night Wolves motorcycle club in Europe; Nikita Mazepin, a former Formula One driver and son of Dmitry Mazepin; and Violetta Prigozhina, the mother of the late Russian businessman and Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
At the end of January 2025, Hungary threatened to veto a six-month-extension of all the European Union’s economic sanctions imposed on Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began three years ago. Those measures come up for renewal every January and July.
Although Hungary failed to achieve its ultimate goal in January -- resuming Russian gas transit through Ukraine, which Kyiv halted at the start of the year -- it did secure a commitment that the European Commission would engage with Ukraine, Hungary, and Slovakia on Russian energy flows into the bloc.