Anti-Corruption Foundation’s Leonid Volkov criticizes lifting sanctions on billionaire Mikhail Fridman. A few years ago, he proposed lifting them himself.
In a Telegram post, Leonid Volkov, head of political projects at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), called the European Union’s decision to lift sanctions on billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman “shameful” and said it “sets a terrible precedent.”
He called Fridman’s removal from the sanctions list a mistake, stressing that the businessman did not have to take any public steps against Putin’s regime to secure it:
Four years ago, I argued — and I still believe today — that clear and transparent mechanisms should have been created for businesspeople like Fridman to secure sanctions relief in exchange for concrete steps that would weaken Putin’s regime, ranging from condemning the war to providing substantial aid to Ukraine. This would have been entirely feasible if such mechanisms had been put in place promptly… But that was never done.
Volkov called the lifting of sanctions on Usmanov not merely a mistake but a “moral catastrophe.” First, he said, Usmanov is considered a leading pro-Kremlin oligarch. Second, he secured his removal from the sanctions list “by taking hostages.” “It turned out that Latvia alone was prepared to resist Europe’s surrender to Putin’s oligarchs, but that was, of course, not enough,” Volkov said.
FBK leader Yulia Navalnaya backed Volkov’s position:
Apparently, Europe doesn’t care whether you support the war or not, whether you’re close to Putin or oppose him. What seems to matter far more is how much money you have in your bank accounts. If you’re rich and have a couple of yachts and connections, it seems sanctions can be lifted without much trouble. But if you fled Russia with a few basic belongings because of political persecution or mobilization, because you don’t support the war, then it’s a different story: you may be denied a visa or a bank account, face countless obstacles, and effectively be pushed back into the arms of Putin’s system. And on top of that, you may even be accused of supporting the war.
In 2022, Volkov signed a letter to the European Commission calling for sanctions on Fridman and other senior Alfa Group executives to be lifted. He proposed that the EU adopt “a clear and simple set of criteria” for removing people from the sanctions list. “These criteria could include publicly condemning the war, compensating for the damage caused, and severing ties with Putin and his regime,” the letter said.
After the letter came to light in 2023, Volkov resigned as head of the international Anti-Corruption Foundation, ACF International. He nevertheless remained one of the foundation’s key figures.
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How so?
France was among the countries that lobbied for the lifting of sanctions against Usmanov. Media reports said Paris interceded for Usmanov as part of an agreement with Azerbaijan on the release of prisoners, possibly involving the return to France of businessman Martin Ryan, who received a 10-year sentence in Azerbaijan on charges of collecting information about the military during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.