Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev spent years fighting EU sanctions over Belarus. He finally won (but remains sanctioned over Russia’s war in Ukraine).

Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev defeated EU sanctions over Belarus in 2026, though he continues to face sanctions due to Russia's war in Ukraine. The EU initially placed him on the Belarus sanctions list in June 2021, citing his close ties to authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and his financial support of his regime.

Gutseriev invested in construction projects and attended Lukashenko's 2020 inauguration, providing ample evidence of his alleged complicity. Despite his victory in European courts, Gutseriev remains under EU sanctions stemming from Russia's aggression against Ukraine. In 2024, it was reported that Gutseriev offered Western intelligence services information about Putin and Lukashenko's plans in exchange for having sanctions against him lifted.

To this end, he met twice with FBI and Czech police representatives in Prague in 2022. The EU lifted sanctions against Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman in September, following their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Both men were deemed part of Putin’s inner circle. The effort to remove sanctions from Usmanov aimed to advance talks with Azerbaijan regarding the release of prisoners, while Luxembourg’s support for Fridman was tied to his lawsuit over frozen assets seeking $16 billion.

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