“Radio Liberty”: Hungary wants to exclude nine Russians from the EU sanctions list

Hungary again wants to soften the EU sanctions against Russia during the discussions of the next package. It asks to exclude nine people from the sanctions list.

"Radio Svoboda" ["Radio Liberty"] writes about this with reference to its own sources.

Budapest again wants to lift sanctions against Russian oligarchs close to Putin, Alisher Usmanov, Petr Aven and Viktor Rashnikov. Hungary already tried to do this in September, but abandoned its demands.

In addition to them, Hungary also wants to exclude Usmanovʼs sister Gulbakhor Ismailova, Avenʼs business partner Mykhailo Fridman, Belarusian-Russian oligarch Dmytro Mazepin, his son Nikita Mazepin, and Russian oligarchs Hrihoriy Berezkin and Vyacheslav Kantor from the list of sanctions.

• In November 2022, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed to create a special fund to compensate Ukraine for losses from the frozen assets of the Central Bank and the assets of private individuals, in particular, sanctioned Russian oligarchs. However, until now, European countries have not made decisions on the start of confiscation of Russian property.
• Estonia was the first European country to start preparations for the confiscation of Russian assets. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Michkel Tamm said that in January, the countryʼs government plans to present a legal plan for the seizure of assets.