Hungary demands end of sanctions against Holland & Barrett oligarch
Hungary is pressuring European leaders to remove sanctions on a billionaire Russian oligarch who owns Holland & Barrett.
Budapest wants EU sanctions on Mikhail Fridman to be lifted, the Financial Times reported. Mr Fridman, a Russian-Israeli citizen, owns significant assets in the UK including the health food chain and a £65m London mansion.
The businessman has been under EU and UK sanctions since March 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He was sanctioned by the UK Government for 'obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia' through his links to the country's financial sector. Mr Fridman, who is valued at $13bn (£10bn), co-owned Russia's largest private bank, Alfa, until late last year.
Hungary has demanded his removal from the EU list of sanctioned individuals in exchange for backing the renewal of sanctions on 2,000 other businesspeople and politicians tied to the Russian state, the FT said.
Led by strongman Viktor Orbán, Hungary is the most pro-Russian member of the EU and has repeatedly pushed back against the sanctions regime. Mr Orbán has claimed sanctions have done €19bn (£16bn) worth of damage to Hungary's economy.
He told state radio in January: 'Now the issue of the rollover of the sanctions is on the agenda and I have pulled the brakes and asked EU leaders to understand this cannot continue.
'This is not good that we pay the price of helping Ukraine ... and they cause us problems.'
According to Radio Free Europe, a European news organisation, Hungary initially pushed for six business figures to be removed from the sanctions list, including metals oligarch Alisher Usmanov, before narrowing its demands down to Mr Fridman.
Diplomats have been meeting over the past few days to discuss the sanctions, which are rolled over twice a year in mid-March and mid-September. The negotiations have become known as the 'sanctions dance' by diplomats, because of the tit-for-tat negotiating between Hungary and the EU.
Mr Fridman is the co-founder of Luxembourg-based conglomerate LetterOne, which owns stakes in a number of UK businesses including Holland & Barrett and is not currently sanctioned.
Mr Fridman stepped down from the board of LetterOne after the invasion but he remains a shareholder. A LetterOne spokesman said the group was 'entirely separate' from its sanctioned shareholders and had no comment.
The oligarch has challenged the EU sanctions in court and won a partial victory against the EU sanctions last year after the European Court of Justice ruled that authorities had failed to provide enough evidence of his links to the Kremlin. However, he remains under sanctions.
The billionaire has also filed a lawsuit against Luxembourg, where LetterOne is based, alleging $15.8bn of damages because of the sanctions. Luxembourg also supports his removal from the EU sanctions list.
The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) raided Mr Fridman's £65m north London home, known as Athlone House, over suspected alleged evasion of sanctions in 2023, with more than 50 officers descending on the property
The 59-year-old businessman was arrested and released on bail. He later challenged the search in courts before the NCA dropped its case.
Mr Fridman was born in Lviv, Ukraine, but currently holds joint Russian and Israeli citizenship. He was a resident of Britain until 2023.
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