Latvia forced into ‘difficult’ EU compromise over Putin oligarchs

The European Union has reached a compromise to renew its sanctions against Russia after Latvia agreed to abstain from a disputed plan to remove two prominent Russian oligarchs from the bloc’s blacklist.

Latvia agreed on the afternoon of September 22 to stop opposing a Franco-Slovak initiative to delist Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, according to three national diplomats briefed on the negotiations.

The dispute had delayed the renewal of around 3,000 EU sanctions listings against Russia for weeks, exposing the limits of the bloc’s unanimity requirement and forcing member states into a last-minute compromise.

“In maintaining the (sanctions) regime we have reached a difficult compromise,” a spokesperson for the European Council Presidency said.

Under the agreement, EU ambassadors have provisionally backed extending the sanctions for 36 months rather than the originally planned 12 months. The longer renewal period formed the basis of a compromise that appeared to have been reached a day earlier.

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The arrangement nevertheless triggered anger in Kyiv.

“What signal does this send? Frankly, astonishing and embarrassing,” Ukraine’s sanctions chief Vladyslav Vlasiuk said on social media.

EU sanctions policy requires unanimity, giving France and Slovakia significant leverage in negotiations over the two oligarchs. Without a compromise, the bloc risked failing to renew thousands of sanctions listings.

Latvia had initially taken a hard line against the proposal. On the evening of September 21, Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said: “The Latvian government’s stance has been unwavering. EU sanctions against Russia must be strengthened, not weakened.”

Her position received public backing from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who praised Latvia just two hours before Riga changed course.

Rather than vote against the compromise, Latvia will abstain, allowing the measure to proceed without giving the proposal its support.

Four national diplomats said Belgium, Estonia and Lithuania were also expected to abstain because they opposed delisting Usmanov and Fridman but did not want to risk the disappearance of the wider sanctions regime.

Latvia will separately impose national sanctions on the two men, according to a Latvian government statement. It remained unclear whether other EU countries would follow suit.

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs described the decision as a choice between two undesirable outcomes.

“This was not a choice between a good and a bad solution, but between a bad and a much worse one,” Kulbergs said.

Earlier on September 22, Latvia had called for the decision to be postponed for two weeks, potentially pushing the vote beyond an upcoming parliamentary election in which the delisting of the two oligarchs could have proved politically damaging.

Kulbergs said Latvia’s opposition had nevertheless produced concessions that would benefit the country and its allies.

“Choosing to stand up for further sanctioning of these persons, we achieved a result that is more beneficial for Latvia, Ukraine and Europe in the long term,” he said.

The Latvian government’s statement also referred to a series of commitments from France, including negotiations over Latvia joining France’s nuclear deterrence initiative and an expanded French military presence in Latvia, “especially in the field of air defense.”

The dispute centres on two businessmen regarded by EU authorities as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Fridman, a co-founder of the Russian conglomerate Alfa Group, has faced scrutiny over the activities of companies linked to his business empire. A subsidiary provided insurance for vehicles used by Russian forces in Ukraine and reportedly serviced Russia’s Main Office of Special Programs, which is responsible for protecting Putin.

The Ukrainian-born businessman was previously the owner of Sense Bank, formerly known as Alfa-Bank, one of Ukraine’s largest financial institutions, before it was nationalised by Kyiv in 2023.

Usmanov built his fortune through metals and mining following the collapse of the Soviet Union. When the EU imposed sanctions on him in 2022, its decision referred to him as “one of Putin’s favorite oligarchs”.

The ambassadors’ agreement still requires formal approval by national ministers in writing. Member states have until 6pm local time to complete the process.

If approved, the renewed EU sanctions regime will remain in force until September 22, 2029 — ending weeks of uncertainty over whether the bloc could maintain one of its most extensive sanctions frameworks against Moscow.

The episode has exposed a fundamental tension within the EU’s Russia policy: member states remain committed to preserving the wider sanctions regime, but disagreements over individual listings can give governments leverage over the bloc’s entire architecture.

In this case, the price of preserving thousands of sanctions was a compromise over two of Russia’s most prominent sanctioned businessmen.