“Individual sanctions will continue to be applied to approximately 2,6 thousand individuals and legal entities that were included in the list in response to Russia’s ongoing unjustified and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. Current restrictive measures include travel restrictions for individuals, asset freezes and a ban on the provision of funds or other economic resources to individuals and organizations on the list,” the EU informed.
Restrictive measures will be in force until September 15, 2026. The Council clarified that during the review of the sanctions list, it was decided to remove seven people from it: five who died and two more people. The names of the latter are not indicated.
Earlier, on March 13, the media wrote that Hungary and Slovakia demanded that the EU remove Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the list of sanctioned Russian billionaires, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico launched an entire lobbying campaign. Fico sent a letter to EU countries from Turkish President Erdogan, which was supported by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In the letter, Erdogan said Turkey would adhere to EU and US sanctions against Russia, but acknowledged that individual sanctioned entities may experience difficulties in relations with Turkey. Among them, he mentioned Usmanov, calling him a “philanthropist” important to the Turkic world.
At the same time, Politico, citing sources among diplomats, wrote that the two people from whom the EU lifted sanctions were not Usmanov and Friedman.
Context
The European Union has already introduced 19 sanctions packages, the last of which was approved by the EU Council on October 23, 2025. It included restrictions against Russian banks and crypto exchanges, as well as individual entities in India and China. In addition, the EU restricted the movement of Russian diplomats, introduced new measures on the oil and gas and financial sectors of the Russian Federation, its “shadow fleet”, and also banned the import of Russian liquefied natural gas.
On November 2, the head of the Ukrainian state, Vladimir Zelensky, said that Ukraine was taking part in the preparation of the 20th package of sanctions and had already proposed adding to it Russian legal entities and individuals who continue to make money from energy resources. Also, according to him, there will be an update regarding the kidnappers of Ukrainian children.
The media wrote that the European Union intends to submit the 20th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation by February 24 – fourth anniversary the start of a full-scale war. However, this could not be done.
