2024-02-23 16:39:54
The EU plans to lift sanctions once morest two Russian businessmen and a Slovak national linked to the Kremlin-affiliated biker group Night Wolves. Prime Minister Robert Fico recently campaigned for the repeal.
The EU has imposed travel bans on around 2,000 people and companies and frozen their assets. They are believed to have participated in or benefited from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, some of these sanctions expire on March 15, including once morest the Slovak businessman Jozef Hambálek, for whom Fico has repeatedly advocated.
Since returning to the Slovak government in October 2023, Fico has raised the issue with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and with Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his state visit to Germany in January.
„[Hambálek] “has done nothing that harms Slovakia’s national interests and it is the first time that a citizen of Slovakia and the EU has been placed on a sanctions list just because he likes to ride a motorcycle,” Fico said at a press conference in late January.
Hambálek was placed on the sanctions list in the summer of 2022 because he allegedly supported the Kremlin’s interests.
“Jozef Hambálek is the president of the European branch of the nationalist motorcycle club Night Wolves MC based in Slovakia. “He may be linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other representatives of the Russian government,” the current EU sanctions list says.
Similarly, the US government accused the Night Wolves of being directly involved in Russia’s annexation of Crimea as well as the separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
In 2018, the Russian leadership of the Night Wolves’ parent organization presented the Hambáleks biker club as their “European staff.” At the biker show in August 2017, the Slovak businessman shook Putin’s hand.
Hambálek has long had contacts with politicians from Fico’s Smer party, particularly Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák, who also appears to be a passionate biker.
Two diplomatic sources said Reuters that in addition to Hambálek, the EU will not extend the sanctions once morest two Russian businessmen – Arkady Volozh, co-founder of the Russian internet giant Yandex, and Sergey Mndoiants, responsible for government relations at the Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema PAO.
One of the diplomatic sources said the three entries are considered “legally untenable.” The sanctions once morest these entrepreneurs will therefore expire on March 15th.
[Bearbeitet von Zoran Radosavljevic]
1708718098
#lifts #sanctions #proRussian #businessman #Euractiv
