Baltic states sanction Usmanov, Fridman after EU move

Lithuania said on September 28 that it had joined Latvia and Estonia in imposing national sanctions on Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman after the European Union removed them from its blacklist.

Rokas Pukinskas, a representative of Lithuania's migration department, said the interior minister had decided to add Usmanov and Fridman to the country's persona non grata list after a submission by the foreign minister.

Latvia also introduced national financial and entry restrictions on the pair, national broadcaster LSM reported. Estonia announced national sanctions last week.

Estonian Foreign Minister Markus Tsahkna said Usmanov and Fridman “continue to support Russia's aggression against Ukraine and contribute to its continuation.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said last week that Russia's “wallets” should not “feel at ease in Europe while Ukrainians are being killed.”

Ukraine condemned the EU's removal of the two oligarchs from its Russian sanctions list as “shameful and unjustifiable.” President Volodymyr Zelensky called the move a “concession” to the Kremlin and said wars end through “resolve and strength, not concessions to the aggressor’s entourage.”

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are EU and NATO members on the alliance's eastern flank and have been strong supporters of Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.