“There is no reason to continue”: the EU explained why sanctions against four Russians were lifted

Why the EU lifted sanctions against four Russians/Channel 24 Collage

The European Commission commented on the exclusion of four Russians from the EU sanctions list. The Commission believes that there are no legal grounds to continue the restrictions.

About this in the commentary24 Channelsaid European Commission Speaker Peter Stano.

Why the EU can remove Russians from the list of sanctions

European Commission Speaker Peter Stano said that EU member states constantly carry out an audit of sanctions packages.

Each package is regularly reviewed, and then member states, in the process of review, discover that there are no longer legal grounds to keep people on the sanctions list, and they are removed, – he said.

The EC Speaker also noted that the decision-making process on excluding persons from the lists is a conference-based one. In general, sanctions are lifted if these individuals no longer meet certain criteria.

Since the start of the war, we have added more than 1,800 individuals and entities to the list, and in the review process we have removed ten of them so far. The reasons are very different, ranging from the death of an individual, or when there are legal reasons, for example, because these people have demonstrated to Member States that they no longer meet the criteria, said Peter Stano.

At the same time, the speaker Putin, Dmitry Peskov cynically stated that “Moscow does not understand the logic of Brussels’ sanctions, nor the decisions to lift or extend them.”

Which Russians were sanctions lifted

Sanctions were lifted from three Russian businessmen – Grigory Berezkin (owner of RBC), Farhad Akhmedov (ex-head and co-owner of Northgas), Alexander Shulgin (ex-head of the Russian online store Ozon). Also, the restrictions were not extended against the Russian colonel, Georgy Shuvaev, who died in Ukraine.

Note that Alexander Shulgin won the case in the European Court against sanctions last week. The European Court found insufficient evidence that the Russian continues to be an influential and leading businessman.

In general, the European Council extended personal sanctions against 1,800 people responsible for undermining or threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine for another six months.