European Union ambassadors failed for a second time on September 11 to renew the bloc's sanctions list on individual Russians, which expire on September 15.

Two names have become a problem. Slovakia has spent years asking for the metals and telecoms billionaire Alisher Usmanov and the Alfa Bank co-founder Mikhail Fridman to be delisted, and France has now joined it on Usmanov, four EU diplomats told Euronews. Paris has framed the delisting as a political trade-off to get the renewal through, wagering that Bratislava would drop its second demand as it did at the last renewal in March.

Other capitals are annoyed as they want to keep the sanctions pressure on. "It raised a lot of questions about the motivation, seems mostly economic reasons at play here," one diplomat said, speaking anonymously. All four described considerable frustration among member states, set against Russia's widening hybrid campaign in Europe and in particular the explosive-laden drone found beside a Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig airport last month. A French official said Paris supports renewing the sanctions and would not discuss the negotiations.

Usmanov was listed in 2022 on claims that he is close to Vladimir Putin – a claim that Usmanov has always denied. Those claims were based on press reports and in particular a tweet by Swedish analysist Anders Aslund who called Usmanov “Putin’s favourite oligarch.” However, in the last four years Usmanov’s lawyers have challenged all of those reports and won dozens of legal defamation cases and see thousands of articles withdrawn or deleted.

As IntelliNews reported, Usmanov’s lawyers sent a letter to the heads of the European Commission (EC) at the start of September saying as all the incriminating articles that were used to justify the sanctions have now been withdrawn or deleted there is no case for his sanctions and they should be dropped.

Usmanov made his firstmn in the twilight of the Soviet Union, printing colourful plastic shopping bags. After the collapse of the USSR he went on to make several more fortunes in metals and mining before moving into telecoms and technology holdings in 1990s. He made the bulk of his money from an early investment into Facebook before its IPO. Usmanov denies being close to the Kremlin. Forbes ranks him tenth among Russia's wealthiest people this year at $14.5bn.

The Council has sanctioned around 2,600 people and companies and a new package added 218 names in July as part of the 21st sanctions package.

The sanctions must be renewed every six months and requires unanimity rule amongst the member states and the clock runs down to zero on September 15.

Individual listings have been renewed in six-month blocks, with a twelve-month cycle now under discussion, while the bloc's economic measures moved to annual renewals over the summer.

There is precedent for a delisting arranged between capitals rather than argued on the merits. Recordings of a 2024 call published this spring showed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asking Hungary's then foreign minister Peter Szijjarto to help remove Usmanov's sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, from the list. Szijjarto replied that Hungary and Slovakia were submitting a delisting proposal together. Ismailova came off the list in March 2025.

Slovakia has also supported Usmanov’s removal form the list. Robert Fico's government halted all military aid to Kyiv in January, has threatened to block EU decisions on Ukraine before, and wants the six-month review cycle preserved rather than extended.

If the clock does run out without a renewal the immediate commercial consequence would be the unfreezing of assets and the lifting of travel bans across the whole list at once, with no mechanism to re-impose them quickly.

UNN reports that timely extension remains in doubt. The bloc that expelled Russian diplomats over Leipzig and approved EUR6.1bn for Ukraine's air defence on Thursday may let its asset freezes expire on Tuesday over two businessmen.

The name of founder of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman has also up for removal. As IntelliNews reported at the time, from the original seven oligarchs that came up in the Yeltsin-era, Fridman was the least connected to the Kremlin having paid a market price for its acquisition of the TNK oil company of $1.4bn in the late 1990s. However, the group has maintained close contacts with the Kremlin, as all large groups in Russia need to do.

Now London-based, Fridman has also fought his sanctions vigorously and has already succeeded in having some of them lifted. In 2024 he launched a fresh challenged - a landmark $16bn arbitration claim against Luxembourg, contesting the freezing of his assets on the grounds of a pre-1991 investment guarantee that protects investors from state appropriation. The case could open a "Pandora’s box" if he wins, but is still working its way through the courts.