The EU has bought itself another seven days. Member states failed to agree on extending the bloc’s Russia sanctions list for another six months, so they have instead agreed to keep the measures in place until 22 September.

Ambassadors from all 27 member states met in Brussels’ Justus Lipsius building at nine o’clock this morning. It should have been a formality: renewing the EU’s blacklist of individuals accused of undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity. They failed to reach a deal on a six-month extension.

With the measures due to expire on Tuesday, however, member states agreed on a stopgap seven-day extension. The move keeps the sanctions in force while giving capitals more time to resolve the dispute.

The compromise does not settle the underlying disagreement. Slovakia has been pushing for two people to be removed from the list, while France has recently backed the delisting of one of them. The next deadline is now 22 September.

The stakes are real. If the list lapsed, banks would have had to unfreeze the accounts of around 2,600 Russians and Russian companies overnight. EU travel bans would have ceased to apply. The bloc has flirted with this outcome every six months since the measures began. It has always pulled back at the last hour.

Two names, two capitals

The holdout is not new. Slovakia has spent months demanding the removal of two men from the list: Mikhail Fridman, an Israeli-Russian banker who co-founded Alfa Bank, and Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek-born billionaire once counted among the Kremlin’s favourite oligarchs. Bratislava made the same demand in March. It folded only in the final hours.

This time, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is said to have forwarded Brussels a letter from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The letter urged support for Mr Usmanov, citing his role in building ties between Turkic states and the West, according to Radio Free Europe. Whatever weight it carried, it does not fully explain what happened next.

Last week, France backed Slovakia’s call to delist Mr Usmanov. Paris insists it still wants the wider sanctions regime renewed. It frames the move as a matter tied to a request from unnamed international partners. Diplomats from other member states, briefed on the manoeuvre, called it a source of “huge frustration.”

Mr Usmanov and Mr Fridman have separately tried to fight their listings in the EU courts. Mr Fridman won a partial victory in 2024. The General Court found insufficient evidence for his inclusion during 2022 and 2023. Updated Council decisions kept him on the list regardless. Mr Usmanov lost his own challenge the same year. He is now appealing to the Court of Justice.

A deadline nobody can move

The immediate crisis has been postponed, not resolved. And even another deal would not mean the end of the story.

The dispute is unfolding alongside a broader shift in how long the EU maintains its Russia sanctions. Since 2014, the bloc has renewed the individual sanctions list every six months, giving member states a regular opportunity to review who remains on it. Brussels is now weighing whether to move to a 12-month renewal cycle, according to diplomats briefed on the talks. Bratislava is understood to oppose the change.

We have a separate issue related to national security, and we would like to respond positively to our international partners who have approached us regarding Mr Usmanov.
— French diplomat, quoted by European media

A French diplomat, explaining Paris’s change of heart, was quoted describing “a separate issue related to national security” and a wish “to respond positively to our international partners who have approached us regarding Mr Usmanov.” Which partners, and what the security issue is, nobody in Brussels seems willing to say publicly.

The seven-day extension avoids an immediate lapse. But unless Slovakia, France and the other member states can agree on the names at the centre of the dispute, Brussels will be facing the same question again next week.

This article has been updated.