Switzerland Excluded Friedman and Usmanov from the Sanctions List

Switzerland has removed Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Friedman and businessman Alisher Usmanov from the sanctions list imposed in connection with the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. This is evidenced by data published on Wednesday, November 4, by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). In addition to Friedman and Usmanov, the restrictions have been lifted regarding the former rector of the Crimean Federal University named after V.I. Vernadsky, Andrei Falaleev, and the legal entity Redbird Corporate Services Ltd. Two other individuals - former State Duma deputy Yuri Shvytkin and designer Alexander Leonov - have been excluded from the list due to death. ## ## New Sanction Restrictions At the same time, the Swiss sanctions list has been supplemented with 254 entries. According to SECO, among them are 33 Russian banks, one financial institution from a third country, 17 financial sector organizations and cryptocurrency service providers, five companies from third countries, as well as four airports and two ports in Russia. The agency also reported that after considering foreign policy and legal factors, the authorities have decided not to impose restrictions against two Russian citizens for the time being. For the same reasons, enhanced export controls were not applied to 14 companies registered in third countries. At the same time, SECO emphasized that the operational measures already taken under the 20th sanctions package should prevent circumvention of trade restrictions. ## ## The European Union's Decision and Controversies Surrounding It On September 22, the Council of the European Union extended the sanctions against Russia for three years while simultaneously excluding Usmanov and Friedman from the list. This decision followed several days of disagreements among EU member states. According to Reuters, Financial Times, and Euractiv, the issue of excluding the two entrepreneurs was discussed during the search for a compromise necessary to agree on the extension of the restrictions. Latvia opposed the lifting of sanctions against Friedman and Usmanov, while Lithuania included them in the list of individuals banned from entry. ## ## Moscow's Position on Western Sanctions Russian authorities describe Western sanctions as illegal. President Vladimir Putin claimed that the total number of restrictions imposed against Russia has exceeded 30,000. According to him, this is almost twice the number of measures applied against all other countries in the world combined. Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the large number of restrictions has developed a "certain immunity" in the Russian economy to sanction pressure.