Bratislava: Slovakia supported Hungary’s proposal to raise sanctions on numerous Russians, which include Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is close to Vladimir Putin, at the meeting of EU overseas ministers in February, reported a Swedish information portal, citing diplomatic sources, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda report.
It included that the concern of lifting sanctions from Usmanov was the matter of negotiations involving Slovak Key Minister Robert Fico and International Minister Juraj Blanar with their Hungarian counterparts in Budapest in December 2023.
At that time, the Slovak authorities asked for Hungary’s help for the exclusion from the EU sanctions record of businessman Jozef Hambalek, who was incorporated thanks to his ties with the Evening Wolves Russian biker organisation near to Putin, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The Swedish news portal pointed out that the Hungarians decided to “just take advantage of the scenario” and, in exchange for supporting the removing of Hambalek from the sanctions listing, they questioned Slovakia to guidance the exclusion of various other Russians.
As for every a number of media reviews Bratislava complied with this request about them.
These folks consist of Arkady Volozh, founder of the Russian Yandex firm Sergei Mndoiants, a Kremlin advisor on EU relations as perfectly as Alisher Usmanov, previous Method-1 racer Nikita Mazepin, and Russian billionaire Viatcheslav Kantor.
Although Volozh and Mndoiants ended up reportedly eliminated from the sanctions checklist along with Hambalek, potent objections were being lifted in the EU pertaining to Usmanov, Mazepin and Kantor, and EU sanctions versus them remained in area.