US and European sanctions pressure on Russia is getting weaker

Russian-linked individuals are increasingly removed from US sanctions list.

Despite continued pressure from the European Union and the US on Russia, the sanctions lists are gradually changing. In March, the European Union removed several Russian citizens, such as Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev, businessman Vyacheslav Kantor, Alisher Usmanov's sister Gulbahor Ismailova, and former head of Eurochem Vladimir Rashevsky, from the list of restrictions. This decision was a part of a regular review of the sanctions regime and, as European media noted, a reflection of the internal balance of interests in the EU.

Some cases, such as Mikhail Fridman's lawsuit, have also ended in favour of the plaintiffs, but the sanctions remain in place, reminding that even a court win does not always mean immediate de-listing. According to the sources, in some cases de-listing was possible due to pressure from individual EU member states, such as Hungary.

Equally interesting is the case of businessman Vladimir Rashevsky, who in 2024 won a lawsuit in the EU court to lift the sanctions. Unlike previous examples, his victory was the result of not only legal but also public work. Rashevsky was able to convince the court that his role in the political and economic processes for which he was sanctioned was clearly exaggerated. Despite political difficulties and pressure, his lawyers convinced the court that his rights had been violated and the judgement was reviewed. However, it appears that in this case the result was only achieved through long and painstaking work in the courts.

Against the backdrop of the recent visit of the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev to the U.S. Despite his close ties with the Russian authorities, he was able to obtain a temporary lifting of sanctions in the US. The reason was his participation as a special representative on the part of Russia to resolve the situation.

But there is another example of US sanctions being lifted: we are talking about Karina Rotenberg, a US citizen and wife of Russian businessman Boris Rotenberg. She was placed on OFAC's sanctions list in the spring of 2022, as part of an expanded sanctions crackdown on family members of businessmen. However, the US Treasury Department removed her from the list on 2 April 2025.

Karina Gapchuk, a native of St. Petersburg, applied for American citizenship in 2004. The American passport was obtained in 2007 after Gapchuk sued former FBI Director Robert Mueller for unreasonable delays by the Bureau in processing her request to become a US citizen. Later, already as Karina Rothenberg, she found herself on the list in March 2022. However, as her defence stressed, neither participation in the financing of conflicts nor connection to the sanctions actions was proved to Karina.

A team of US lawyers worked on the case and obtained a review, including on the grounds of not meeting the criteria under domestic law.  The team secured her removal from the US sanctions list SDN. The process has been underway for a number of years, and it is a success for the law firm to prove that the restrictions were wrongly imposed. The legal side of this decision, according to observers, emphasises an important principle: in the US, sanctions can only be imposed on a country's citizens if there is a strong evidence.

In public, Washington's rhetoric towards Moscow remains tough, but such cases demonstrate that there is a mechanism for legal review of decisions. As in the EU, where decisions are often made based on various political factors, in the US sanctions can be reviewed if there are not sufficient legal grounds for doing so.

Share this article: