EU fails to renew Putin sanctions, next attempt on September 22
The EU ambassadors' committee failed on Monday evening to agree on extending personal sanctions against Putin and roughly 3,000 other individuals, after not all member states submitted their votes in time. A new meeting is set for the morning of September 22.
The EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) failed late on Monday, September 21, to reach a decision on extending sanctions imposed over violations of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. According to a correspondent for "European Pravda," citing several European diplomats, the next ambassadors' meeting has been scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Kyiv time on September 22.
The EU has still not reached consensus on renewing personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov, Viktor Medvedchuk, Viktor Yanukovych, and around 3,000 other individuals and entities linked to the war against Ukraine.
Written vote attempt
On Monday evening, Coreper attempted to approve a 36-month, or three-year, extension of the sanctions regime through a written vote. However, not all member states submitted their voting results, according to one source.
The compromise under discussion also involved removing two Russian oligarchs, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from the sanctions lists at the request of Slovakia and France. It remains unclear which countries specifically blocked this trade-off between the oligarchs' removal and the 36-month sanctions extension.
Background
The sanctions regime, whose list the EU began compiling back in 2014, covers individuals and entities responsible for actions undermining or threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence. Since 2022 it has included Putin, Russia's top leadership and leading oligarchs, as well as former Ukrainian President Yanukovych.
On September 14, the EU had already extended the sanctions regime by only seven days, as Slovakia and France kept pushing for the removal of the two oligarchs. It later emerged that France intends to trade the removal of Usmanov from the sanctions list for the release of several French citizens held in Azerbaijani prisons. The previous extension of the personal sanctions took place on March 14, when Slovakia similarly pushed until the last moment for Fridman and Usmanov to be delisted.
