EU sanctions apply to the Russian state, but also against individuals. Some of them are now rid of the punishments – including an oligarch that is said to have close connections to Putin. Hungary made it possible with his veto law.
With his veto law, Hungary has forced the cancellation of EU sanctions against several Russians. The Oligarch Wjatscheslaw Moske Kantor is one of those who will no longer be on the EU sanction list in the future. This confirmed several diplomats of the dpa news agency.
In addition, a sister of the well -known Russian entrepreneur Alischer Usmanow and two other people benefit from the procedure of Hungary.
According to this, the extension of Russia sanctions against more than 2,200 other people and organizations was, according to diplomats.
The decision for this required a unanimous decision of the 27 EU member states. Hungary threatened to block it unless several Russians are removed from the list. Originally, the country had even called for the sanctions to be lifted against nine people.
“Systematic against common Security interests “
In response to Hungary's step, the Baltic Estonia is now going to suspend the country's voting rights in the EU. “Hungary works systematically against the common security interests of Europe, and that's why we quickly have to take concrete steps,” said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna in Tallinn.
According to Estonian ideas, a procedure according to Article 7 of the EU contract should be initiated. This provides for the possibility of suspending the voting rights of Member States if they violate EU values seriously and persistently.
For “political reasons”, Hungary made the extension of the sanctions dependent on the fact that three Russian business people will be removed from the list, said Tsahkna.
Weekly discussions
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had already announced several times that he generally does not consider the EU's Russia sanctions to be expedient. The EU sanctions usually include travel limits, freezing assets and the ban on providing funds or other economic resources. In most cases, they were imposed against Ukraine in response to the unjustified and groundless military aggression of Russia from an EU perspective.
There had been discussions about the demands of Hungary for weeks because a number of Member States did not want to accept them at first. The risk of lifting the sanctions could give other Russians arguments for complaints against punitive measures. For example, the sanction decision against Kantor said that this had close connections to President Vladimir Putin who had helped him secure his fortune.
Because of his good relationships with the Kremlin, he benefited from Russian decision -makers who were responsible for the illegal annexation of the Crimea peninsula by Russia or the destabilization of Ukraine. According to the EU, Kantor is a great shareholder of one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in Russia.
“Determination Is crucial “
According to diplomats, only the lifting of sanctions against Vladimir Raschewski, which used to be managing director and director of the mineral fertilizer, was comparatively undisputed. Last July he also won a lawsuit before the EU court against EU decisions against him.
Top representatives of the EU initially did not respond to the disagreements with Hungary. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the other hand, spoke of the fact that the pressure against Russia would be increased. “Our determination to support Ukraine is crucial,” she wrote on the X.
