Overview
- The rollover keeps high‑profile businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman on the EU list despite earlier calls from Slovakia and Hungary to drop them.
- The EU removed Maja Nikolajewna Bolotowa and Dutch trader Niels Troost from the sanctions list, citing weak or unsustainable grounds in the official record.
- The decision was adopted by written procedure and renews travel bans and asset freezes on more than 2,500 people and entities until 15 September 2026.
- Member states scaled the renewal to six months rather than the 12 months some had sought, maintaining the bloc’s semiannual unanimity test.
- Hungary continues to block the EU’s 20th Russia sanctions package and the €90 billion loan to Ukraine over the dispute on Druzhba pipeline deliveries, with EU foreign ministers set to discuss the holdups on Monday.