Full Breakdown
Azerbaijan Pardons French Prisoner After EU Delists Russian Oligarchs
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev granted a pardon to French national Martin Ryan, who had been serving a ten-year sentence for espionage, on the day following the European Union’s decision to remove Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from its sanctions list. The pardon was part of a broader clemency that included 20 individuals, according to the president’s website.
Diplomatic Background
European diplomats reported that France linked the delisting of Usmanov—and, after a Slovak veto, Fridman—to the release of French detainees in Baku. A senior Brussels diplomat told AFP that Paris had privately indicated that Azerbaijan was using Usmanov to pressure the EU over the two French cases. The EU’s compromise, reached after two weeks of negotiations, dropped the two oligarchs from the blacklist while extending the overall sanctions regime for an unprecedented 36 months. EU envoys extended the previous sanctions regime to September 22 to allow more negotiation time. Uzbek and French authorities are said to have reached a behind-the-scenes agreement under which Aliyev would issue the pardon, though France has not confirmed the arrangement.
Official Statements & Responses
- France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux declined to comment, citing “national security.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the bloc to keep Usmanov and Fridman on the blacklist, arguing that political delistings undermine pressure on Moscow.
Verbatim Quote
- “The world needs not a political delisting, but timely and unconditional rollover of individual sanctions, until Moscow engages in serious peace negotiations and takes concrete steps to end its war against Ukraine.” — Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian president “The world needs not a political delisting, but timely and unconditional rollover of individual sanctions, until Moscow engages in serious peace negotiations and takes concrete steps to end its war against Ukraine,” — Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ukrainian president