Baltic countries announce sanctions against EU-exempt Russian oligarchs

ANDthis initiative by the three Baltic States — former Soviet republics and now members of the EU and NATO — follows the EU decision to remove these billionaires near the Kremlin from the list of sanctioned individuals, taken under pressure from France and Luxembourg last week.

“ On the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior adopted a decision on the inclusion of Usmanov and Fridman in the list of ‘personae non gratae’,” Lithuania’s Migration Department spokesman Rokas Pukinskas announced.

“ The oligarchs are part of the Russian war machine. The regime’s ‘funders’ should not be allowed to feel at ease in Europe while the Ukrainians are being killed,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkovicius said last week in response to the EU decision.

Latvia, which initially opposed lifting EU sanctions before yielding to pressure, also adopted sanctions against the two oligarchs in the financial and circulation areas, according to the LSM public media.

Estonia had announced national sanctions last week.

“Ousmanov and Fridman continue to support Russian aggression against Ukraine and contribute to its continuation,” explained Estonia’s Foreign Minister Markus Tsakhna.

In turn, Ukraine condemned the “shameful and unjustifiable” lifting of European sanctions against these two oligarchs.

To a general surprise, France demanded that the EU lift its sanctions against the Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Ousmanov, invoking “national security” issues.

The day after the lifting of sanctions against Ousmanov, the government of Azerbaijan, to which this oligarch is deemed close, granted forgiveness and released a Frenchman arrested for espionage in that country, whom the director of the French foreign secret services (DGSE) had personally sought from Baku.

Luxembourg has already succeeded in cancelling the sanctions imposed on the Russian-Israelite Mikhail Fridman, who called on the Grand Duchy in court for compensation of EUR 15 billion.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, are considered the most likely potential targets for Russian provocations or armed interventions.