Europe · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Ilham Aliyev Pardons Frenchman Martin Ryan After EU Lifts Sanctions on Alisher Usmanov
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned French national Martin Ryan. Pardoning came hours after EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Whether sanctions removal pressure was clearly evidenced.
8 of 9 outlets skipped it: ryan also holds British citizenship.
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Reuters
“Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris had privately indicated”Read the original ↗
BBC
“It was not clear what had led to pressure for sanctions on Russian-Uzbek billionaire Usmanov to be lifted”Read the original ↗
Reuters stresses diplomats' claims of private French indications, while the BBC says the cause of pressure is not clear.
EU delists, pardon follows
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned a Frenchman Martin Ryan on Wednesday after the EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, and Reuters said Ryan had been serving a 10-year prison sentence in Baku following a spying conviction in March.R
The EU lifting came a day after the delisting, and it was not immediately clear whether Ryan had been released.
Aliyev pardoned 20 people, and a second Frenchman, Anass Derraz, remained in jail in Azerbaijan accused of accepting a Russian bribe.
Ryan denied espionage and told the court, "I did not spy. I am not a spy, and during the court case I tried to prove this," while Reuters reported that Aliyev pardoned Ryan alongside 14 Azerbaijani citizens, two Turkish nationals, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen and a Pakistani citizen.R
Diplomats cite pressure
Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris had privately indicated that Baku was using Usmanov's sanctions case to pressure France over two French citizens held in Azerbaijan, and Baku rejected that assertion. A senior diplomat in Brussels told AFP that France had pushed for the EU to lift sanctions on Usmanov as part of a potential prisoner deal with Azerbaijan.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha criticised the EU decision, complaining that Moscow was "celebrating, because it got what it wanted: a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans". Reuters also said the delisting of Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman exposed divisions among EU governments, and it described the decision as the first time the EU removed sanctions on the wealthiest members of Russia's billionaire elite who had not publicly condemned the war in Ukraine.R
What Europe faces next
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a press conference in New York after meeting US President Donald Trump that the lifting of EU sanctions was a result of Russia's work to break the West's unity in supporting Ukraine, and Reuters quoted him saying, "Maybe these two oligarchs are now very happy." RThe EU imposed sanctions on Fridman and Usmanov in 2022 after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, including travel and transaction bans and asset freezes within the bloc.
The latest agreement extended sanctions on others for three years, while it added that until then EU sanctions on more than 3,000 "individuals and entities" had to be renewed every six months. Latvia had initially opposed the move but decided to abstain, and Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said it was "dangerous and sends completely the wrong signal at a time when Russia's behaviour is becoming more aggressive."