By Julia Payne and Lili Bayer
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union agreed on Friday to renew sanctions on Russian individuals and entities but kept Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman on the list despite pressure from Hungary, EU diplomats said.
EU sanctions must be renewed every six months in a unanimous vote by the 27 member states’ ambassadors to Brussels. The deadline for renewal was Saturday and the list has now been renewed until September 15.
Hungary, which has maintained cordial ties with Moscow despite the Ukraine war, had threatened to block the renewal unless certain individuals were delisted.
Two diplomats said Budapest had initially asked for nine names to be removed from the list, including Fridman’s, but the other envoys managed to reduce the number to three Russians.
They are Gulbakhor Ismailova, who is the sister of prominent businessman Alisher Usmanov, businessman Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor and Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev.
A fourth, businessman Vladimir Rashevsky, was removed due to a weak legal case rather than pressure from Budapest.
Three others were removed from the list because they have died.
The EU has more than 2,400 individuals and entities on its Russia sanctions list.
(Reporting by Julia Payne and Lili Bayer; Editing by Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
