Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's team failed to force the European Union to lift sanctions against several Russian oligarchs.
The wealthiest Russian oligarchs remained under EU sanctions
What is essential to understand is that on February 21, the permanent representatives of the European Union officially voted to extend the current sanctions against Russia and Belarus for another six months.
However, they did not support the attempt of official Budapest to exclude the names of three Russian oligarchs from the lists, in particular, Alisher Usmanov, Vyacheslav Kantor and Dmitry Mazepin.
This information was shared by Rikard Jozwiak, Radio Svoboda's European affairs editor, concerning his insiders in Brussels.
EU ambassadors also agreed to extend sanctions against more than 1,900 Russian and Belarusian individuals and legal entities for another 6 months, the journalists said in a statement.
As Rikard Jozwiak found out, the team of pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Orban did everything possible to exclude from the list of Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov, Vyacheslav Kantor and Dmitry Mazepin, Jr., but this plan of the dictator Putin also failed.
EU approved the 13th package of sanctions against Russia
On February 21, it was officially announced that the permanent representatives of the EU agreed to support the 13th package of sanctions against Russia.
According to preliminary data, it will be finally approved before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine — February 24, 2024.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has already commented on this matter.
We must keep degrading Putin's war machine. With 2,000 listings in total, we keep the pressure high on the Kremlin. We are also cutting Russia's access to drones, she said.
