Hungary is again demanding the easing of EU sanctions imposed in several rounds in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, insisting on the exclusion of nine people from the sanctions list.
"Radio Svoboda" became aware of this.
Budapest again demands to exclude Alisher Usmanov, Petro Aven and Viktor Rashnikov from the list of oligarchs close to Putin, several diplomatic sources reported on January 17. Hungary already tried to get the trio out of sanctions in September, but backed down after political pressure.
Now Hungary is also seeking to exclude Usmanov's sister Gulbakhor Ismailova, Aven's business partner Mykhailo Fridman, Belarusian-Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, his son Nikita Mazepin, and Russian oligarchs Grigory Berezkin and Vyacheslav Kantor.
The official journal of the EU calls Usmanov "a pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin." He is called one of "Putin's favorite oligarchs" and is seen as an intermediary in solving the president's business issues.
The sanctions have already led to the seizure of a $600 million yacht linked to Usmanov, who unsuccessfully challenged the measures in the European Court of Justice. His sister Ismailova was also sanctioned after an investigation found that Usmanov had indirectly transferred his assets to her.
The mass media previously reported that Brussels has accelerated work on the tenth package of sanctions and hopes to adopt it before the Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv.
According to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the tenth package of sanctions will focus mainly on closing loopholes, and on the introduction of serious consequences for those who circumvent the sanctions of the European Union.