By Andrew Gray and Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, Sept 21 – The European Union was poised on Monday to lift sanctions on Russia-linked billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman under a deal to ensure thousands of other individuals and organisations remain sanctioned, diplomats said.
To the surprise of many of its EU partners, France this month joined Slovakia in pushing for sanctions to be lifted on Russian-Uzbek businessman Usmanov. Fridman is claiming $16 billion from Luxembourg in a case that has gone to arbitration.
Luxembourg then demanded the same treatment for Fridman, a Russian, according to diplomats. France made its move after coming under what it said was pressure from Azerbaijan, as the country has detained at least two French nationals, three European diplomats told Reuters last week. France’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Pascal Confavreux, said last week that France’s position on Usmanov — who made his name as a metals and mining mogul — was a matter of national security and in response to a request from partners. At the time, the EU described Usmanov as having “particularly close ties” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Fridman had “supported actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. EU diplomats said Luxembourg argued that its case to maintain EU sanctions on Fridman could be weakened if sanctions were lifted on Usmanov. “It would send a lot of signals, and all of them are bad signals,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
A senior Azerbaijani diplomat on Friday rejected those assertions. The package deal was sent to EU capitals for written approval on Monday evening, according to the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
