Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev spent years fighting EU sanctions over Belarus. He finally won (but remains sanctioned over Russia’s war in Ukraine).
EU ambassadors removed Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev from the bloc’s Belarus sanctions list on October 7, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The EU imposed the sanctions on Gutseriev in June 2021. The Council of the EU cited his close ties to Alexander Lukashenko, alleging that he financially supported Lukashenko’s regime and benefited from it. The council pointed to his investments in the construction of the Nezhinsky mining and processing plant and his attendance at Lukashenko’s 2020 inauguration.
Gutseriev spent several years challenging the sanctions in European courts. In May 2026, he won a ruling annulling the Council of the EU’s latest decision to renew them. The court found that the council had not presented enough up-to-date evidence that he still had ties to Lukashenko’s regime.
Removal from the Belarus list does not mean all sanctions against Gutseriev have been lifted. He remains subject to EU sanctions over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
In 2024, the Czech publications Denik N and Respekt reported that Gutseriev had offered to share information about Vladimir Putin’s and Lukashenko’s plans with Western intelligence services in exchange for having sanctions lifted. To that end, he met twice with representatives of the FBI and Czech police in Prague in 2022.
In September, the EU lifted sanctions against two Russian billionaires: USM Holdings founder Alisher Usmanov and Alfa Group co-founder Mikhail Fridman. Both were placed on sanctions lists after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. EU authorities considered both billionaires part of Putin’s inner circle.
France and Slovakia pushed to lift sanctions against Usmanov, while Luxembourg advocated for Fridman. The effort to lift Usmanov’s sanctions was intended to advance talks with Azerbaijan on the release of prisoners. Luxembourg’s support for Fridman has been linked to his lawsuit over frozen assets — he is seeking $16 billion from the country’s authorities.
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