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The office of the British prime minister declined to comment on details of his conversation with the Ukrainian president on this matter.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, during a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, stated that he does not support the EU’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman.
As Bloomberg reports, the British prime minister assured that his country would keep the measures against these oligarchs in place. He stressed that Ukraine’s allies must continue to maintain sanction pressure to compel Russia to end the war.
The office of Burnham declined to comment on the details of the discussion. At the same time, Downing Street noted that during the meeting officials discussed the need to strengthen sanctions to bring Russia to the negotiating table.
This criticism was a rare instance of a rift between Britain and the EU on sanctions policy, which had remained aligned since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 year.
Both oligarchs previously had business interests in Britain. Usmanov was known for his investments in London football club Arsenal, from which he exited in 2018 year. Fridman moved to London in 2013, but left the country after sanctions were imposed against him.
22 September it became known that the EU had reached a compromise to extend sanctions against Russia and removed from the blacklist two Russian billionaires — Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman.
At the same time, bloc members extended sanctions against nearly 3000 individuals and entities who support the war against Ukraine, for another three years instead of the usual six months.
The decision to remove the oligarchs was made under pressure from certain member states, although the majority of EU countries opposed such a step. France demanded lifting sanctions on Usmanov on grounds of “national security” connected to a potential prisoner exchange involving Azerbaijan.
Luxembourg, however, requested similar terms for Fridman, who is currently suing the country for $16 billion due to freezing his assets.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Британія запевнила Україну що збереже санкції проти російських олігархів Усманова і Фрідмана". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: LB.ua.
