Bern quietly lifted the sanctions on Osmanov and Friedman.
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs quietly updated the list of sanctions, and Elisher Osmanov and Mikhail Friedman disappeared from it. At the same time, the restrictions were lifted from the former rector of the Crimean Federal University Andrey Palaev and the company Redbird Corporate Services Ltd.
Bern, as usual, pretended that he was simply following the EU. Formally, this is true, but the story of exactly how the EU arrived at this decision is more like bargaining than justice.
In 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions against the two businessmen, calling them members of Putin's inner circle. Four years later, this characteristic suddenly stopped bothering me. During this period, Friedman was able to resign from LetterOne's board and sell shares in Alpha Bank and AlphaCovni, but the matter for which the sanctions were imposed was never publicly closed.
Slovakia was the first to demand Osmanov's exclusion, then France joined. Luxemburg said that since Osmanov was leaving, Friedman should also leave. Paris explained its position for reasons of national security, without revealing details.
According to Euronews, EUobserver and the Financial Times, a deal with Azerbaijan to free French citizens was behind it. France has not confirmed this connection, but has not offered a clear alternative version. Uzbekistan, Osmanov's homeland, has been lobbying for his deportation for about two years, according to Euronews.
With Luxembourg everything is even more spicy. In 2024, Friedman filed a $16 billion lawsuit against the Grand Duchy over the asset freeze, and the press directly linked support for his deportation to this legal dispute. It turns out that if the defendant in yesterday's sanctions presents a bill to the state, this state's position regarding its sanctions could unexpectedly soften? An embarrassing question for a country that has talked about values for years.
The price of the issue was clear to everyone.