The EU's ambassadors failed again on 11 September to extend the bloc's sanctions on individual Russians, days before the listings lapse, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Europe editor Rikard Jozwiak. Slovakia wants two Russian oligarchs delisted, and France now backs the same for one of them, Alisher Usmanov. The EU listed him in 2022 as a pro-Kremlin oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

France picks up a demand Bratislava has carried for years

Paris has called for the delisting of Usmanov, an Uzbek-born multi-billionaire under EU sanctions since the full-scale invasion in 2022, four EU diplomats told Euronews. His money came out of metals and mining and later out of telecoms and tech holdings. Usmanov denies being close to the Kremlin. Forbes ranks him 10th among Russia's wealthiest people this year, at $14.5 billion.

One diplomat, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said the request raised questions about the motive and that it "seems mostly economic reasons at play here." All four diplomats described huge frustration among other member states, against the background of Russia's widening hybrid attacks in Europe, among them the explosive-laden drone found beside a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport. A French official said Paris supports renewing the sanctions but would not discuss the negotiations.

Explore further

Italy joins Bulgaria in resisting EU sanctions on Patriarch Kirill

Slovakia holds out for two names

Bratislava has pushed for years to remove both Usmanov and a second Russian oligarch, Mikhail Fridman, and it repeated the demand when the sanctions were last extended in March. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's government has threatened to block EU decisions on Ukraine before, and it halted all military aid to Kyiv in January. It has opposed the rollover across several ambassadors' meetings and wants the six-month review cycle kept.

Paris pitched the move as a political trade-off, wagering that Bratislava would stand by both of its delisting demands this time instead of dropping them as it did at the last renewal, Euronews reported.

Explore further

EU lawmakers renew push to seize frozen Russian assets as Ukraine faces its toughest winter yet with a €23 billion defense funding gap

What runs out on 15 September

The deadline falls on 15 September. The listings at stake cover around 2,600 people and companies by the Council's own count, while Euronews puts the whole regime at more than 3,000, from arms-industry firms to individuals the bloc blames for sustaining the war against Ukraine. Individual listings have run in six-month blocks, and a 12-month cycle is now under discussion. The bloc's economic measures switched to annual renewals over the summer, and a July package added 218 names. Renewal requires unanimity, so one capital can let everything lapse. Ambassadors return to it on Monday.

How the last delisting in Usmanov's family was arranged

Recordings of a 2024 call, published this spring, showed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asking Hungary's then-foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, to help remove Usmanov's sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, from the list. The Hungarian minister replied that his country and Slovakia were submitting a delisting proposal together. Ismailova came off the list in March 2025.

Russia's foreign minister says the war has to end so that "no more Nazism" is left in Europe. Sergei Lavrov made the claim in a speech to students, casting Russia's war once again as a fight against a Nazi threat.

Earlier, Aleksei Selivanov, a sanctioned collaborator who became a senior official in the occupation administration of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, revealed the meaning behind the term "denazification". "Denazification is re-Russification," he said, adding that where Russian troops arrive, Ukrainian nationhood "ceases to exist," according to United24.

Russia reportedly points on Germany, one of Ukraine's main supporters

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, Head of the National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, linked Lavrov's statement to the recent conflict between Germany and Russia over the drone attack on Ukraine's plane in Leipzig.

"Russia’s aggression is now becoming even more overt, with the main focus being placed on the political dismantling of the current elites who refused to acknowledge this aggression right under their noses," Kovalenko said.

Germany has been a long-term supporter of Ukraine, sending tons of aid, including Gepard anti-drone guns and Leopard tanks.

Russia plans Ukraine's new power figures after the war

"This war must be ended so that there is no more Nazism in Europe, which has again spread its metastases here," Lavrov said.

He added that leaving Ukraine's leadership in power would betray those who defeated Nazism in 1945.

The framing collapses on contact with the facts. It was Russia that launched the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, and it continues the war today.

Ukraine has no Nazi government. Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish and was elected democratically. "Denazification" has functioned since the invasion's first day as a pretext, drawing on the Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War to recast an attack on Ukrainian identity as a war on fascism.

Earlier, Lavrov said that one of Russia's war goals in Ukraine was to protect the "honor and dignity" of Russian citizens, including their right to use the Russian language and practice the Orthodox faith, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported.

In August, Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), said during a sermon at the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent that the Soviet Union's creation of the nuclear bomb was the result of divine intervention.