Hungary demands EU sanctions against several Russian oligarchs be lifted

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has said that Hungary has demanded that EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov, Dmitry Mazepin and Mikhail Fridman be lifted.

"We took the initiative to remove nine people from the EU sanctions lists. Among them was the person you mentioned [Fridman – ed.], Usmanov and Mazepin were among them, too. That is, people who, in our opinion, should not actually be on the list, from a legal point of view," Szijjártó said in an interview with RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet.

He emphasised that this referred to nine Russian nationals, and Hungary managed to remove three people, including Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev, from the sanctions list.

Szijjártó also added that Dmitry Mazepin had not been removed from the list, and his son Nikita Mazepin had been removed even earlier on the basis of a court decision.

The Financial Times wrote that the EU is losing patience with Hungary and wants to strip it of its voting rights.

Read more: Hungary defies sanctions: Trump ally moves to unfreeze billions in Russian assets