The bloc\u2019s case against the tycoon was built on sand and its media industry has had to amend thousands of articles<\/p>\n
The EU\u00a0is divided over a deal to un-sanction Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov. Brussels\u2019 allies in Kiev aren\u2019t happy, but the alternative \u2013 a legal showdown \u2013 could call the bloc\u2019s entire sanctions regime into question.
\nAmbassadors from EU member states met on Monday to discuss Usmanov\u2019s case. According to Euronews, France pushed for Usmanov\u2019s removal from the blacklist, in exchange for Azerbaijan freeing two alleged French spies.
\nIreland, which holds the EU\u2019s rotating presidency, proposed that Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, another Russian businessman, be delisted on the condition that the EU renew its anti-Russian sanctions regime for 36 months instead of the usual six.
\nAfter a second round of talks on Monday that stretched into the night, EU envoys failed to agree to remove Usmanov and Fridman from the list. Meaning no agreement has been reached on extending the bloc’s sanctions.
\nUsmanov is at the centre of a discussion that could undo a\u00a0central pillar of the EU’s\u00a0personal sanctions policy.
\nWhy was Usmanov sanctioned?<\/p>\n
Police raid Alisher Usmanov’s Tegernsee lakeside villa in Rottach-Egern, Germany, September 21, 2022<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Getty Images; \u00a0Alexandra Beier <\/p>\n
A highly successful entrepreneur in the final years of the Soviet Union, the Russian-Uzbek businessman snapped up metal and mining businesses during the rapid privatization of the 1990s, breached into media with his acquisition of Russia\u2019s Kommersant newspaper in 2006, and expanded his wealth with a series of savvy investments in Apple, Twitter, and Facebook over the following decade.
\nUsmanov, believed to be Russia\u2019s seventh-richest person with a net worth of more than $16 billion, was sanctioned by the EU four days after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.\u00a0
\nThe EU\u2019s sanctions ledger declared that Usmanov \u201chas particularly close ties to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin,\u201d has \u201cacted on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation in a number of business deals,\u201d and gave former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev \u201cpersonal use of luxurious residences\u201d controlled by his companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alisher Usmanov’s entry in the EU’s sanctions ledger, February 28, 2022<\/p>\n
\u201cKommersant under Usmanov\u2019s ownership published a propagandist anti-Ukrainian article by Dmitry Medvedev\u201d the entry continued, concluding that \u201ctherefore he actively supported the Russian government\u2019s policies of destabilization of Ukraine.\u201d
\nEU media: Unreliable sources\u00a0
\nAccording to Usmanov\u2019s lawyers, Brussels sourced all of its \u201creasons and evidence\u201d for sanctioning the billionaire from \u201cmass media and social media publications.\u201d In a letter to the European Council last month seen by Intellinews journalist Ben Aris, Usmanov\u2019s legal team argued that this evidence has been proven false in courts in all 27 EU member states.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Russian billionaire wins landmark libel case in Germany \u2013 media<\/p>\n
Back in 2022, Usmanov launched a sweeping campaign of litigation against newspapers and other media outlets incorrectly reporting his business links to the Russian government and characterizing him as \u201cPutin\u2019s favorite oligarch.\u201d Usmanov won judgments against Germany\u2019s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which claimed that he used his wealth \u201cin the interests or at the direction of the Kremlin,\u201d against German state broadcaster ARD, which connected him to a \u201cbribery scheme,\u201d and against Luxembourg\u2019s Mediahuis, which named him as the owner of a sanctioned superyacht impounded in Hamburg.
\nAmong his other legal victories were judgments against Forbes, Germany\u2019s Der Tagesspiegel, Austria\u2019s Kurier, and Switzerland\u2019s Blick, all of which used false claims by deceased anti-Kremlin activist Alexey Navalny to back up their stories of Usmanov\u2019s ties to the Kremlin.
\nThe European Council could stand accused
\nSince 2022, his lawyers reportedly claimed in the letter, more than 3,200 articles about Usmanov\u00a0have been\u00a0corrected and 1,300 deleted, in 60 countries. Almost 100 cease-and-desist letters have been issued and 58,000 pieces of online content and ads about the businessman have been pulled down, many of which \u201crelied on the Council\u2019s narrative.\u201d
\nThe European Council, meanwhile, has quietly removed at least 18 documents from its \u201cevidence packs\u201d against Usmanov, the letter claimed.\u00a0
\nThe wave of retractions and deletions \u2013 issued by the same sources used to back up the sanctions decision \u2013 \u201cmust be accepted as exculpatory evidence,\u201d Usmanov\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cTo sum up, the allegations used to maintain Mr Usmanov\u2019s designation have been discredited and refuted in 27 out of 27 EU Member States.\u201d
\nThe EU\u2019s dilemma
\nThe EU\u2019s Court of Justice has already dismissed two attempts by Usmanov to appeal his blacklisting. In rejecting the second attempt last September, the court ruled that the council\u2019s decision to sanction Usmanov was based on a \u201cspecific, precise and consistent\u201d body of evidence.
\nHowever, even Politico, the Brussels elite\u2019s leak-factory of choice, has reported that the \u201cevidence packs\u201d used to justify sanctioning figures like Usmanov are often \u201chastily compiled\u201d and based on \u201cshaky evidence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On shaky grounds: The secret, slipshod evidence the EU uses to sanction Russian oligarchs.#tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com\/uATyU0YjCO\u2014 POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) September 20, 2023 <\/p>\n
In 2023, Politico found that evidence against Russian businessman Grigory Berezkin was drawn from articles written by an AI chatbot, and a website called \u2018Russian Crimes\u2019 written by journalists that didn\u2019t exist. Another evidence pack cited an advertisement in a Russian lifestyle and cooking magazine. Yet another cited a Ukrainian gossip site. Berezhkin was removed from the EU\u2019s blacklist that September.
\nMore than a dozen individuals have since been removed from the list. Some, like Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin, had been sanctioned over the alleged offenses of their relatives. At least six \u2013 including Pavel Ezubov, cousin of metals magnate Oleg Deripaska, and former e-commerce tycoon Aleksandr Shulgin \u2013 were delisted after taking legal action against the EU.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
France wants spy back in exchange for delisting Russian tycoon \u2013 media<\/p>\n
Keeping Usmanov on the list could open the EU up to more legal challenges from the billionaire, which could make\u00a0more of the council\u2019s classified evidence packs being made public. Confirmation that much of the evidence is spurious may have emboldened the almost 3,000 individuals and entities sanctioned by Brussels over the conflict to launch challenges of their own. Fridman also certainly believes the bloc is engaged in significant overreach.\u00a0
\nTo the envoys who met on Monday, cutting Usmanov loose may have been seen as a necessary sacrifice to preserve the legitimacy of the sanctions regime.
\nNational interest
\nThe push to delist Usmanov began in Slovakia this March, when Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar argued that there were \u201cvery strong legal arguments\u201d against the sanctioning of him and Fridman. Uzbekistan and a number of other Turkic countries \u2013 including T\u00fcrkiye \u2013 reportedly lobbied Bratislava to push for his removal from the blacklist.
\nSlovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Russia, but Slovakia found an ally when France unexpectedly began advocating for Usmanov\u2019s delisting, citing unexplained \u201cnational security\u201d interests. According to multiple media reports, France has been negotiating behind the scenes with Azerbaijan, where President Ilham Aliyev has apparently agreed to release two imprisoned French citizens in exchange, one of whom was jailed for spying on the country\u2019s military on behalf of French intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Germany drops case against Russian tycoon \u2013 media<\/p>\n
Why did\u00a0Luxembourg\u00a0back off from Fridman?
\nAccording to Reuters, Luxembourg backed the delisting of Fridman, who has sued the duchy for $16 billion over its freezing of his assets in 2022. Luxembourg reportedly argued that its case against Fridman would be weakened if Usmanov alone was let go, and insisted that the two billionaires be treated as a package deal.
\nEU diplomats took to Politico to vent at the French last week, with one complaining that \u201cif France goes ahead with this, others will come forward with their own oligarchs that should be delisted … [then] the house of cards starts to fall.\u201d\u00a0
\nWhat nobody in Brussels will admit on the record is that if Usmanov is un-sanctioned, politicians and publishers across Europe\u00a0will likely breathe a sigh of relief that their media outlets \u2013 many of them government-funded \u2013 will not be dragged into a legal showdown that could result in massive payouts and the collapse of the sanctions system itself.
\nWhat does Usmanov\u2019s case tell us about the EU?
\nThe case exposes cracks in the EU\u2019s \u201cunited front\u201d for Ukraine, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it during her State of the Union speech last week. As France and Luxembourg demonstrated, no EU member is above breaking ranks when their national interest is at stake, and the EU is sometimes capable of putting its own members\u2019 needs above Ukraine\u2019s.
\nIs the Kiev tail wagging the EU dog?
\nKiev remains incandescent at the thought of its EU masters going off-script.\u00a0\u201cHow can anyone seriously discuss sanctions delisting while Russia\u2019s war continues?\u201d Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s sanctions adviser, Vladislav Vlasiuk, complained on Monday.\u00a0
\n\u201cUsmanov and Fridman were listed because they are part of Russia\u2019s aggressive regime waging a war of aggression against Ukraine,\u201d Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sybiga wrote on social media. \u201cDelisting is unacceptable and would send the wrong signal to Moscow at a time when pressure needs to increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usmanov and Fridman were listed because they are part of Russia’s aggressive regime waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. What has changed? Nothing. Delisting is unacceptable and would send the wrong signal to Moscow at a time when pressure needs to increase. On the\u2026\u2014 Andrii Sybiha \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@andrii_sybiha) September 21, 2026 <\/p>\n
What does this tell us about the EU’s info-culture?
\nNo matter how unsavory a character Brussels finds him, Usmanov\u2019s string of legal victories against Western Europe\u2019s most prestigious news outlets \u2013 seen in Moscow as paranoid pillars in an increasingly hysterical echo-chamber \u2013\u00a0sends an important\u00a0signal to the EU: As long as it believes what it tells itself about Russia and Russians, the legal ground it stands on is incredibly shaky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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