1 week ago
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The European Union just bought itself a week to figure out something it couldn’t resolve on time: whether two Russian oligarchs should remain on its sanctions list. On September 14, EU ambassadors agreed to extend the bloc’s individual sanctions regime against Russia by a mere seven days, pushing the expiration from September 15 to September 22.
The reason for the stopgap measure is a dispute over the potential delisting of Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek billionaire, and Mikhail Fridman, co-founder of Alfa Bank. Slovakia has been pushing for their removal, and France has reportedly joined the effort to delist Usmanov specifically, citing national security grounds.
A sanctions regime under internal stress
The EU’s individual sanctions package currently targets roughly 3,000 individuals and entities tied to Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. Those on the list face asset freezes and travel bans, tools designed to squeeze the financial networks supporting the Kremlin’s war effort.
Usmanov landed on the sanctions list in 2022 due to his close ties to Vladimir Putin. Fridman, one of Russia’s most prominent banking figures, was sanctioned around the same time. Previous attempts to remove both men from the list, including discussions as recently as March 2026, have failed to gain the unanimous support required under EU rules.
That unanimity requirement is the crux of the problem. EU sanctions decisions demand consensus from all member states, meaning a single dissenting voice can block an extension or, conversely, a single advocate for delisting can stall the entire process if enough political pressure builds behind them.
The seven-day extension is, by most accounts, unprecedented during the Ukraine conflict. Previous renewals have been routine, multi-month affairs.
The broader sanctions landscape
It’s worth separating this dispute from the EU’s broader economic sanctions against Russia, which operate on a different timeline. The European Council extended those measures through July 31, 2027, following a decision in June 2026. Those sanctions cover trade restrictions, energy import limitations, and financial sector controls that form the backbone of Europe’s economic pressure campaign.
France’s involvement is particularly notable. Paris positioning itself alongside Slovakia in favor of removing Usmanov introduces a major Western European power into what had been a more peripheral debate. The national security rationale France has reportedly invoked suggests the move may be connected to broader diplomatic calculations rather than a simple reassessment of Usmanov’s individual culpability.
What the crypto sector should watch
This particular dispute does not involve digital assets or crypto service providers. Neither Usmanov nor Fridman is being discussed in the context of blockchain-based holdings, and the delisting debate centers on traditional asset freezes and travel restrictions.
That said, the EU’s broader sanctions architecture has increasingly encompassed the crypto industry. Previous sanctions packages have imposed transaction bans on various crypto service providers, both Russian and non-Russian, that were deemed to be facilitating sanctions evasion.
The separate economic sanctions extension through mid-2027 provides a more stable backdrop. Crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols that have implemented compliance screening for Russian-linked wallets and entities can expect those requirements to persist for at least another year, regardless of how the individual delisting debate resolves.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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