Britain refused to lift sanctions on Usmanov and Fridman, Bloomberg says

Britain does not back the EU decision to lift sanctions against Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman and has no plans to remove restrictions on them.

Discussions between the head of the British government and the Ukrainian president took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. According to sources cited by the publication, Johnson made it clear that London would not follow Brussels’ example. The British prime minister stressed that international partners of Ukraine should continue to maintain strict sanctions. This is necessary to keep economic pressure on Russia and force it to end the war. Journalists note that this criticism shows a rare split in the positions of Britain and the European Union regarding sanctions on the Russian Federation. Since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, allies have largely acted in full coordination. In the official Downing Street summary of the meeting between Johnson and Zelensky, the EU decision was not directly mentioned. At the same time, the document emphasized that politicians discussed the need to continue and strengthen sanctions pressure on the Kremlin to force it to sit down at the negotiating table.

As a reminder, after long negotiations the EU extended sanctions against Russia for three years. At the same time, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman were removed from the list of anti-Russian sanctions. Note that Euronews reported that all EU member states have already realized that they made a serious mistake when they lifted sanctions against the two Russian oligarchs.