A prisoner’s release hours after an oligarch’s delisting exposes how EU sanctions became bargaining currency

Azerbaijan pardoned French citizen Martin Ryan on September 23, hours after the European Union removed Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov from its sanctions list. Ryan had been sentenced in March to ten years in prison for espionage. European diplomats told Reuters that France believed Azerbaijan was using detained French citizens to press for Usmanov’s removal; a senior Azerbaijani official called that allegation categorically unfounded.

France described its position as a matter of national security. Slovakia also supported Usmanov’s delisting, while Luxembourg sought the removal of Mikhail Fridman. Latvia initially resisted but ultimately abstained, allowing sanctions on roughly 3,000 other Russia-linked people and entities to be renewed for three years. Usmanov and Fridman, both sanctioned after the 2022 invasion, deny the cases against them and have pursued legal challenges.

The timing does not prove a formal exchange. Azerbaijan’s presidential pardon cited personal, health and family considerations, and another French citizen imprisoned in the country was not released. Yet the case demonstrates how an individual detainee, bilateral tensions over Armenia and a wealthy sanctioned person can become linked inside an EU decision requiring consensus.

The compromise kept the much larger sanctions regime alive, which is the argument in its favour. It also teaches governments and sanctioned elites where the system bends: pressure one member state hard enough and a personal delisting can become the price of renewing thousands of other listings. Ukraine says it will push for national restrictions to restore the pressure removed at EU level.