European Union member states have agreed to extend sanctions against more than 2 000 individuals, including Latvian citizen Pēteris Avens. At the same time, sanctions were lifted for several millionaires who remain influential supporters of Vladimir Putin’s policies. Latvia also voted in favour of this decision.
With the approval of all EU member states, including Latvia, four individuals were removed from the EU sanctions list: Mikhail Degtyarev, a highly “Z-oriented” Russian government official and an active propagandist for the “Special Military Operation” (SMO), Moshe Kantor, owner of Russia’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producer Acron, reportedly linked to X-55 missile deliveries to China and Iran, Gulbahor Ismailova, sister of billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who has been entrusted with managing his assets and Vladimir Rashevsky, a businessman who successfully challenged his sanctions in an EU court.
Their removal from the sanctions list is linked to pressure from Hungary. Radio Free Europe reports that Hungary, supported by Slovakia, threatened to block the renewal of asset freezes and visa bans for another six months—measures affecting more than 2 400 Russian companies and individuals since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Latvia’s controversial position
The process of selecting individuals for removal from the sanctions list raises some questions. According to analyst Jurģis Liepnieks on Puaro.lv, Latvia ensured that sanctions against Pēteris Avens remained, while lifting them for Mikhail Degtyarev, a high-profile Kremlin official actively involved in war propaganda.
What happened?
Jurģis Liepnieks’ vision: Hungary initially demanded that eight individuals be removed from the sanctions list, including Mikhail Fridman and Pēteris Avens. Poland then proposed a compromise to remove Avens, Fridman, Usmanov’s sister, and Kantor from the list. However, Latvia privately opposed Avens’ removal, citing potential political backlash and domestic controversy.
As a result, Avens remained sanctioned, while the Kremlin-aligned Degtyarev was removed— a decision that Latvia also supported. Liepnieks finds Latvia’s position puzzling: “How does one conclude that Avens is more dangerous than an active minister in Putin’s government?”
Latvia’s justification remains unclear
The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not publicly explained its rationale for supporting the removal of sanctions against Degtyarev, Kantor, Ismailova, and Rashevsky.
According to the ministry’s statement to “Delfi”, Foreign Minister Baiba Braže (New Unity) immediately placed these individuals on Latvia’s national list of persona non grata after the EU vote.
“For Latvia, it was important that individuals with ties to Latvia, such as Mikhail Fridman, Pēteris Avens, and Dmitry Mazepin, remain under EU sanctions, along with more than 2 000 others. To ensure a united EU decision, compromises had to be made. Otherwise, sanctions against over 2 000 individuals (1 879 people and 507 legal entities) would have been jeopardized,” the ministry explained.
Estonia followed suit, imposing national sanctions on the individuals removed from the EU list, as announced by Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
However, the fact remains: Mikhail Degtyarev, Russia’s current Minister of Sports and an open supporter of the war, has successfully been removed from EU sanctions—with votes in favour from the Baltic states.
Who are the recently sanction-free Kremlinists?
Mikhail Degtyarev’s Telegram channel was until recently called “Degtyarev’s Z machine gun”, now the “Z” has disappeared from the name, but this does not mean that Degtyarev is now against “special military operations”. In July last year, as part of the “Heroes’ Time” project, he publicly saluted the Russians fighting in Ukraine and “thanked the heroes for their heroic deeds”. He has actively campaigned for Putin, but after his appointment as Russian Sports Minister, he called himself “the President’s soldier”.
He personally oversees rehabilitation programmes for “SMO veterans”. His list of “heroic deeds” includes delivering supplies in combat zones during his tenure as Governor of Khabarovsk Krai and issuing awards for the occupation of Ukrainian regions.
In February 2025, he lit candles in a Russian Orthodox church for, as his Telegram channel puts it, the “defenders of the fatherland”—a reference to Russian soldiers in Ukraine and prayed for the “Heroes of the Fatherland” who died in the war.
Moshe Kantor’s estimated net worth is 3.48 billion Sterling pounds. Largest shareholder of Acron, a company deemed strategically important to the Russian government by the UK Foreign Office.
He is allegedly linked to X-55 missile exports to China and Iran. Awarded the Order of Honor by Putin in 2017 for his “professional achievements and long-standing service”. And after the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem in 2020, where Putin accused Poland of warmongering and complicity in some Nazi crimes, the press called him “the President’s personal Jew”.
The founder of the Kantor Centre in Israel, which condemned Russia’s invasion as an “unprovoked attack.” In April 2022, an article “Putin the Enemy of the People” was even published under the signature “Kantor Centre”, then the article became unavailable. However, he has never made a personal statement about the war.
Gulbakhor Ismailova manages the transferred assets of her brother, Alisher Usmanov, including the 156-metre yacht “Dilbar”. The EU Council says she indirectly owns real estate in Germany, Italy, and Latvia. It is known that she resides in the elite “Golden Keys” district of Moscow, alongside former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Vladimir Rashevsky is a former head of SUEK, Russia’s largest coal mining company. He was co-owner and CEO of the Evrohim group of companies. Now SUEK and Evrohim are asking the courts to declare that they have nothing to do with him.
According to Radio Free Europe, Rashevsky was freed from sanctions after successfully challenging them in the European Court of Justice, because Brussels considered his retention on the sanctions list a “weak case”.
Who is more dangerous?
Liepnieks criticizes Latvia’s approach, pointing out to Puaro.lv that “the Foreign Ministry did not tell and did not reveal its actions, its motivation, or its reasoning why Latvia’s official position in the EU is what it is,” and adds, “I can’t understand how it can be imagined that Avens is somehow more dangerous than an existing minister in Putin’s government.”
“Kantor is deeply involved in Russian industry, lives in Russia, as does Usmanov’s sister. Fridman also resides in Russia. The only one on this list who does not live in Russia and who has not been seen in any such activities is Aven, a Latvian citizen. Yet, the sanctions against him remain in place, but let’s clear them against the others,” Liepnieks said ironically.